


This and Nothing More

by moodyme



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Canonical Character Death, End game pynch, Explicit Language, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Noah - Freeform, Non-Graphic Violence, hinted one-sided Adam/Barrington
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-09-17 11:16:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16973589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moodyme/pseuds/moodyme
Summary: After graduating from Aglionby Academy six years earlier, Adam Parrish returns to Henrietta and Aglionby as the new Physics teacher after receiving a cryptic phone call from Maura Sargent claiming 'It's starting'.An AU where Adam was born seven years earlier and attended Aglionby Academy with Noah Czerny and Barrington Whelk.





	1. Forgotten Lore

**Author's Note:**

> This AU has been floating around in my head for a few weeks, and I had most of this chapter written in the notes of an old iPhone 4 before I transferred it over to google docs. While this work is not complete, I do have a rough draft and I expect it to be about 100k words and around 20 -25 chapters. It will probably span all four novels and quite likely beyond.
> 
> Undates will probably be infrequent, but pushing for every two weeks while I go back to school and finish work for the season. I also plan on actually updating or finishing my other stories on this blasted site.
> 
> For anyone nervous about future chapters and the Pynch tag (the following is a spoiler), no relationship happens while Ronan is Adam's student, nor does Adam develop any feelings whatsover for Ronan until he is well past legal age. I ain't here to write underage y'all.
> 
> Unbeta'd, all mistakes are mine so please point them out to me, English is not something I am particularly good at and I could use the correction. Also, I am horrible at tagging, so if you see something that should be tagged, please please please do let me know.  
> Ttile and chapter titles taken from the Raven by Edgar Allan Poe because I haven't got an original bone in my body.
> 
> Thanks for reading.

          Adam Parrish was a miracle of moving parts. He had survived in his father's house for seventeen years. He worked two jobs in order to pay his tuition to the private academy that would be his ticket out of Henrietta. He had the number to a psychic in his front pocket. He even had an appointment with said psychic for after school and before his shift at the trailer factory.

  
 "Adam!" Noah Czerny shouted, barreling out of Welch Hall and towards Adam, a smile plastered on his face. Adam paused and waited for his friend to catch up to him, raising his fist to meet Noah's. They walked in silence across the green to Borden House for their third period Latin class.

Adam wondered if Barrington Whelk, Adams only other friend at Aglionby, would join them in class today. Sometimes he skipped. Adam was envious of Whelks casual disregard for most of his classes, his teachers, his parents. Even the law, sometimes. Adam was thankful they had Latin together, it was the only class that Barrington would regularly attend. It was also the only class that Adam wasn't ranked first, which should have bothered him but didn't. Not if Barrington was first. Adam knew he would not have felt the same if he were behind anyone else, even Noah.

 Crossing the threshold, Adam noticed the rather ugly navy carpet the school had installed in Borden House over Winter break. He wondered what had been so wrong about the wood floors that were perhaps still there, under the carpet. Adam allowed a moment of aggravation at whomever at Aglionby had approved this 'improvement' that had very likely been at least partially responsible in the $900 increase in the cost of his tuition for this semester. If Aglionby decided to raise tuition again before Adam graduated, he would probably have to seek out a third job.  
Adam tried to dispel any thoughts of the future for a moment. He needed to focus on today. That's what Barrington was always telling him, if wasn't easy. Adam had only survived so long by putting all his focus into the future.

 "Did Whelk show for World Hist this morning?" Adam asked Noah in a murmur.

 "No. We had a quiz today too. Which I probably failed 'cause it was on the Mongolian conquest of China during the Qing dynasty or some shit." Noah responded flippantly. He had been distracted by the sight of Xavier Neville falling down the stairs as they passed him on their way up. Several boys laughed, a few asked if he was alright.

 "That's karma for saying Megan Fox isn't that hot in Bio yesterday dick!" Noah crowed, ever willing to defend the hotness of Megan Fox.

 "Jin dynasty." Adam corrected, ignoring Xavier who was now giving Noah the middle finger.

 "What?" Noah was returning the middle finger and somehow walking backwards up the stairs at the same time.  
They had reached their classroom, the last few second period students still trickling out. Barrington was already sitting in his usual spot towards the back of the class.  
Adam wondered whether he had somehow passed them in the quad or if he had simply been milling around in Borden House since his first period French class or if he had skipped first period as well as second period and had just walked to Borden House between periods. Adam thought it was probably the latter.

 "You missed our World Hist quiz you numbnut." Noah laughed as he slid into his seat at Barrington's right while Adam took his place at Barrington's left, Barrington greeted them each with a fist bump. Noah pretended that his fist was exploding.

 "Whatever. So I missed a quiz. Murphy doesn't even weight them in comparison to his exams and essays. It won't matter ten years from now that I missed one quiz." Barrington shrugged off Noah's flimsy concern. "What matters is that we are less than a fortnight away from St. Mark's Eve. Who could think of the petty squabbles of a couple of ancient third world shitholes when one could be thinking of the Ley Line! It would be like asking Lincoln to focus on the agriculture of Ireland when he was surrounded by the Civil War!"  
 Adam could think of several things wrong with Barrington's statement, but he wouldn't say them to Barrington.  
Barrington Whelk did not enjoy it when Adam contradicted him. Which, perversely, was precisely why Adam did it sometimes. To see normally calm Barrington's large eyes narrow, his mouth pinch and his cheeks color made Barrington, who Adam thought of as beautiful, dangerously handsome. Adam would only admit to himself how much he preferred angry and dangerous and handsome Barrington Whelk to suave and insouciant and beautiful Barrington Whelk. But right now, Adam wanted pleased Barrington Whelk, which was his absolute favorite.

 "Speaking of the Ley Line, I'm going to the reading this afternoon to follow up on that idea I had the other day about psychic or spiritual energy connections to the energy of the Ley Line. Was there anything you wanted me to ask, specifically?" Adam asked, momentarily taking his eyes off Barrington to pull his Latin text, notebook and pencil from his messenger bag. Barrington made a thoughtful noise before answering.

 "No, I'll let you take lead on this. After all, the energy is energy idea was yours as you said. Maybe see if they know anything about the significance of St. Mark's Eve." Barrington pulled down the collar of his shirt. It was only a moment, but it was long enough for Adam to notice the new bruise on his neck. Adam knew Barrington's girlfriend was out of town, had been for three days at least. Noah's girlfriend, on the other hand, was in town. Sometimes Adam hated Barrington Whelk, The Virginian Playboy.

 

          288, 290, 292, an empty lot, 296, 298, 300 Fox Way. Adam was early. He looked at the mishmashed old house before him and thought "this is a home". It was a home in the way Adams family's double wide was a house. There were signs of a family all around the front yard; the two bikes thrown carelessly in the grass, the mismatched lawn furniture that sprawled from the porch to nearly the sidewalk, the old blue ford and the lace curtains blowing in the slight breeze from the second story window.  
 The only incongruous thing Adam could find was the hand painted sign that read 'Psychic Reading - By Appointment Only' next to the front door. Two little girls startled him by running from what Adam assumed was the backyard around the side of the home, up the porch steps and through the front door; they were screaming at each other the whole way.  
 Adam walked towards the home, gently nudged his kickstand down and followed the path the little girls had made to the front door. He hesitated there, unsure whether he should knock or if it were permissible to just enter as the girls had done. Surely not, they seemed like they lived here. Did his having an appointment mean he could just walk through the door? Was this a business run from home or a home that ran a business and was there really a difference between the two?

 Just as he had resolved to err on the side of politeness and knock, the door swung open and he was greeted by hair. Lots and lots of hair. The hair was wearing a flowing purple dress. A whisper in his mind corrected him. The dress was lilac. And the dress was worn by a woman. A woman that was blinking at him. Adam blinked back.

 "Seven is a good number, but not as good as three. I suppose it won't matter so much in the end though." The woman said, stepping away from the doorway and gesturing for Adam to enter. At least, that's what Adam assumed she was doing. Adam entered.

 "What?" He asked, feeling as though he finally understood the meaning of befuddled. The woman squinted at him. It made her large eyes almost average sized.

 "Hmmm well, there's seven but there's also three and there should be five. Or there were five. Will be five? It's three now but it should have been five but that's only a could have been." She hummed to herself, turned, and called down the hall, "Maura! Your appointment is here! But he's all wrong."

Adam stiffened at the statement. 'He's all wrong.' Those three words seemed to repeat themselves in his mind, over and over. Didn't he himself feel that he was all wrong most days? Adam was vaguely aware of another woman entering the hall and leading him into a room further into the home. Of the woman saying something, of Adam asking if it cost more. Of two other women entering the room and sitting across from him. Of one of those women being the woman with the hair that had told him he was all wrong.

 Adam forced himself to pay attention to what the women were saying, to focus. He had time to think about his wrongness later, as he tried to sleep. The woman with the hair was looking at him and though Adam couldn't say how, he knew she had been looking at him since they had entered the room. She smiled now as she drew tarot cards from a pouch, long after the other two women had drawn theirs and began shuffling.

 "Blue should be here, she is a part of this. Or will be. Or has been. No, will be but also is." Her voice was barely above a whisper. The woman who Adam vaguely guessed was Maura, the psychic he had had an appointment with and who sat between the other two women, narrowed her eyes.

 "Will that really be necessary? He's already so loud." Maura looked annoyed, but a moment later she was standing and calling from the doorway for "Blue". Whatever or whoever that was.  
Presently, the smaller of the two little girls that had startled him earlier appeared. She had dark hair and couldn't have been older than seven or eight years old.

 "Adam, this is my daughter, Blue. She helps make our readings stronger and Persephone would like her present for this reading. Do you mind?" It did not really sound like a question, more like a statement that happened to end in a question mark.

 "It's fine ma’am, if her being here helps I don't mind." Adam was more interested in the fact that Hair Lady was named Persephone. It sounded like a fake name, but so did Blue. And so did Barrington.  
Maura nodded, once, before helping the little girl settle into a chair in the corner of the room before taking her previous place between Persephone and the other woman.

 "Let's begin, shall we?" Persephone handed her cards to Adam. "Drawn one please." Adam felt the cards. He shuffled them once, twice. He was aware of the women watching with curious expressions.

 "Only one?" He asked. "I thought tarot reading usually used more cards?"

 "Not when there are three decks, not when one card may be the only one that matters." Scoffed the previously silent woman. She looked intimidating.

 "Calla is right, of course, but it's rare for all three of us to do a reading. And Persephone only wants you to pick one card. I feel you also need only one, but Calla may have you choose one or three or ten. It depends upon the reader and the person being read." Maura explained, still shuffling her deck. She frowned before laying one card face down on the table. Calla also frowned as she placed one card next to Maura's, face down. She shuffled her deck, placed another card down, frowned deeper before she picked back up her second card and replaced it in her deck.

 "Adam, it's your turn to choose your card now. " Persephone said.  
Adam placed one card beside Maura's and Calla's. The entire deck had felt warm, but this one card had somehow felt warmer than the others.It had felt right.  
Persephone moved her hand towards the cards before she paused, lifted her fingers to her mouth and hummed.

 "Blue should turn over the cards." She proclaimed, glancing about for the girl. Blue, who had apparently zoned out during the card selection now looked alert at the sound of her name. She scrambled from the overstuffed chair and approached the table, seeming to silently ask her mother for permission which must have been given because she began flipping the cards over.

 "Oh." Calla said.

 "Oh." Maura muttered.

 "Ah!" Persephone sighed.  
On the table before him, Adam recognized the same card, repeated three times. Despite differences in size and style, he recognized the similarities of all the cards. They all depicted a woman holding two swords, her arms crossed.  
Calla learned forward and touched his wrist. Something flashed in her eyes before she grinned wickedly.

 "What do wish to ask us, Raven Boy?" Calla asked, her tone knowing.

 Adam cleared his throat, looking from one woman to the next. "What," he asked, "do you know about Ley Lines?"

 

 

          Adam thrummed with excitement the next morning. The psychic women of Foxway hadn’t told him anything of importance, they denied knowing anything about the Ley Lines. But Adam Parrish was a liar, and he knew when he was being lied to. The three women he had spoken to knew something.  
Adam thought about what the something was as he went to sleep late at night, when he cycled to and from the garage every morning and evening. He thought about it while he did his shift at the factory. He thought about it as he did oil changes and replaced brake pads and tuned engines. The excitement had faded very little by the time monday morning rolled around.

 Adam left the trailer earlier than usual, hoping to catch Barrington and Noah in their dorm room before lessons began. Not finding them there, he made his way towards the dining hall. Adam spotted Noah almost immediately, surrounded as he was by his other swim team members. The swim team was always obnoxiously loud, possibly it was the water in their ears. Barrington had sequestered himself to the far corner of the room, phone in hand, typing furiously.

 Adam sat across from him and waited to be acknowledged. After a few moments more typing, Barrington pocketed his Blackberry and looked over at Noah and the swim team with a smirk. Adam knew when Barrington wanted him to ask him something, usually so he could show off the fact that he knew the answer. He often did it with Latin. Adam usually obliged him.

 “Why’s the swim team being so loud this early in the morning?” Adam didn’t particularly care, but asked anyway.

 “Oh, have you not heard? Saturday night a few members of the swim team were at a townie rager and apparently the swim captain, Jonathan Peterson, got alcohol poisoning and is in the hospital.” Barrington answered, his nearly gleeful tone perhaps not suitable for his words. Adam understood though. Barrington hated Jon Peterson, quite a few people did. He was somehow easy to hate.

 “Nevermind that. Tell me how your meeting with the fortune teller went. Did she tell you all about how you would soon meet a beautiful woman? That your death has fast approaching?” Barrington was smiling like he didn’t really care, and this annoyed Adam. It annoyed him because Barrington would go from the Ley Lines being his sole focus one week to being something he rarely thought of or took seriously the next. Adam knew his friend thought of their search as being a rich man's adventure, a way to pass the time when other pursuits grew stale and boring. While Adam saw the Ley Line and its possible favor as another way out, Barrington, who had never wanted for anything, saw it as a fun lark.  
Adam told him everything that had transpired over the course of his visit to Foxway, Noah joined them about halfway through and demanded Adam retell it.

 “They claimed not to know anything about it, but I know they were lying. I don’t know why, maybe they didn’t trust me. But I think this is something to pursue.” Adam finished with a shrug, hoping Barrington and Noah agreed.

 “Adam, I think you should go back to these psychics, see if you can try and get more info from them. Let’s make that your focus. Meanwhile, Noah and I will work together on some other leads. Alright men?” Barrington looked from Noah to Adam, each boy nodded along with their acquiescence.

 

 

          The next week flew past Adam in a blur of work, school, homework and infrequent visits to 300 Foxway. The latter had affected his wallet more significantly than he would of liked, at $20 per visit he was almost glad when Maura had refused to give him a reading, claiming she had a full schedule on April 24th, which was St. Mark’s Eve. When Adam had tried to instead book an appointment with either Calla or Persephone, Maura had huffed on the other end of the line and told him that the entire house of psychics would be busy until at least the 26th.

 After ending his call with Maura, Adam immediately dialed Barringtons number. His call went straight to voicemail, though instead of hearing ‘Hey, Barrington Whelk here. I didn’t answer your call for a reason. You know the drill.’ Adam heard a vaguely generic female voice informing him that the number dialed was no longer in service. Confused, he called Noah. The two had skipped school today, likely together. Adam tried not to get jealous when they did, they had been friends longer and could afford to skip a day here or there even if Adam couldn’t.The last time Adam had skipped, he had hidden in the carport nursing a concussion, unable to ride his bike to Aglionby. Three times Adam called Noah and three times his calls went to Noah’s voicemail. Just as Adam started dialing Noah’s number for the fourth time, Boyd had called him back into the garage, signaling the end of his break.

 When his shift ended three hours later, Adam was furious. Every break he had, he tried calling both Barrington and Noah, neither had answered. Adam knew they were likely attempting the church watch they had been discussing a few mornings ago, but Adam had assumed they would arrange for Adam to come along with them. That Noah would show up at Boyds in his red Mustang, blasting Linkin Park or Sum 41, Barrington in the passenger seat, amused and indulgent. He hoped they both got a cold from the cool air of a Spring night in Virginia.  
It was nearly midnight when Adam finally pulled his bike up next to his parents’ double wide. His father was waiting and watching at the window. This almost always meant his father was angry and very frequently meant a new bruise for Adam. Resigned, Adam marched up the steps to the trailer, his father meeting him, already shouting, at the top.

 Later, when Adam recalled that night, it was in snatchs of feelings; the annoyance that his mother had been snooping around his room, the confusion as he tried to stand but couldn’t, the fear when he was placed into the back of a police car, the surprise when a battered old Ford pulled up the drive, the relief when Maura began shouting down officers and paramedics and Adam’s parents all in the same breath.

 As the night of St. Mark’s Eve ended and the morning of St. Marks Day began, Adam discovered that he could press charges against his father, that he would never have to return to his parent’s house again. Adam was out. It wasn’t the way he wanted, but Adam was out.  
He moved in first to Foxway, where after three days it became obvious to all parties that his staying there was untenable, though he made no motion to leave and they never asked him to go. Every day he called Barrington and Noah, every day they didn’t answer. Eventually, the story would come out. Barrington’s father had been arrested, and all his assets taken by the government. Barrington and Noah had both disappeared, and rumours began circulating at Aglionby and beyond about the two boys. Jonathan Peterson claimed he had always known the two were gay and a couple, that it had only been a matter of time before the two ran off together. Adam heard a group of boys in the hall whispering that they had overheard Noah talking about San Francisco, of course he was gay. Another boy interjecting, insisting that Noah had had a girlfriend. And round and round the gossip went.

 Adam didn’t know what to think. He was angry that his only two friends had left him behind, that now Adam had to deal with the sideways glances and intrusive questions. He drew even further into himself. He got a third job, focused on school and homework, began taking lessons with Persephone and sometimes Maura or Jimi and very rarely Calla. He worked until he wanted to cry or break something. Sometimes, very late at night, when all the rest of the house had fallen asleep, Adam called Barrington and Noah. He never got an answer.

 


	2. Suddenly There Came a Tapping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have this a week early for Three Kings Day!  
> Unbeta'd my friends, and my English is terrible so please, if you see something that could be improved, please please please tell me.  
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: Language, mild sexual content, a joke is made about incest but no actual incest occurs, referenced child abuse.

The late March afternoon had just slipped into evening when Adam Parrish pulled up to the curb outside 300 Fox Way. He had been driving since early morning, before the sun had risen, heading down I-95 from Boston to Henrietta and he took a moment to just sit in his 2000 Hyundai Sonata that he had bought two years ago for $700. He had filled the back seat, with its mysterious cuts and odd discolored markings, with what little belongings he had accumulated that he couldn’t leave behind. Namely, his clothes, a few books, a box of mementos from his undergrad at Harvard, an even smaller box of mementos from the last year when he worked as a paralegal in Boston during his gap year before law school, again at Harvard, hopefully. These few things were packed into his back seat because Adam did not trust the trunk. He was fairly certain at least one body had been stuffed in it by one the car's six previous owners.

Before he had entirely opened the door of his Sonata, an avalanche of women and girls poured from the house that had been his only real home, not just since he was seventeen. His house before had never felt like home like 300 Fox Way had. Jimi had somehow gotten to him first, and she pulled Adam into her warm and fierce embrace. Next came Maura, her firm hand at his shoulder, and Orla, who stood sneering at his car as though she could see all the awful things that had happened within it. She probably could. Calla very obviously always refused to even look at it. Everyone talked at once as they pulled him towards the front door, asking him questions only to have someone else spit out another question before he could answer, him asking his own questions. As they reached the top step up to the porch, Adam heard a shriek from the backyard, and Blue came running at him full force, launching herself onto his back. Adam was home. He met Maura’s eyes as he crossed the threshold and his mood soured. He was home for a reason, and Adam suspected it would be unpleasant.

 

 

Earlier in March, on a particularly bleak morning that reminded Adam that it was still two weeks before the Spring Equinox, Adam had received a call from Maura Sargent. She told him she and every other psychic woman of Fox Way had foreseen his prolonged return to Henrietta. Furthermore, one of Calla’s regulars, an aging teacher at Aglionby, would soon retire. Adam had very politely asked Maura to stop beating around the bush and to tell him what she had really called about. She took several long moments to respond. Adam listened to her deep breathing over the line. She took one last, deep, inhale and answered.

“I got a call from my sister, well,” Maura paused “my half-sister, Neeve. She wants to come for a visit. I don’t really care, but Adam. Something is happening. Something along the Corpse Road is stirring. None of us can see what it is, but the fact that it remains hidden... I don’t know. I do think Neeve has another motive in coming other than to catch up and to help me with... never mind.” Adam heard something in Maura’s voice he had rarely ever heard before; uncertainty.

“So, what? You think Cavendish’s retirement is connected with my return? Maura, no.” Adam said, his own voice not as certain as he would have liked. He looked around his studio apartment. If he left his furniture, he could be packed in 20 minutes.

“Something happened along the Corpse Road seven years ago. But it was, not a false start, but a delayed start. It’s starting Adam. It’s starting, and you need to be here.”

“I tried scrying yesterday and - don’t scoff Maura, I was safe and all that - and I don’t know if it was because I was too far from the Corpse Road or what, but it felt, hollow? Like something had been there, but it was taken at the last minute. Do you think it could be connected?”

“I think everything is connected. Neeve’s visit and Cavendish’s retirement and even the expired can of tomato soup I found in the supermarket yesterday. Everything is connected to everything. What is it you were hoping to see?” She knew, of course, and Adam told her she knew.

‘Noah,’ he didn’t say.

“Adam, it’s starting. It’s starting.” Maura insisted. Adam had already pulled out his old duffel bag.

 

 

 

Now he sat, not two weeks later, at the kitchen table of 300 Fox Way. Someone had placed a cup of tea in front of him. Adam looked at it, knowing for the sake of politeness he would have to take at least a sip. He suppressed a shudder and got it over with. Adam regretted his stringent politeness. Blue had regretfully shuffled off to her shift at Nino’s half an hour ago, Orla was taking a call and Jimi had rustled the smaller cousins up and off to their assorted parents and caretakers before drifting off to visit a friend. It was only Adam, Maura, Calla and Persephone in the kitchen, the latter three sat watching him. Perhaps they were waiting for a review of the tea. He wouldn’t disappoint them by telling them it had tasted like an old man’s sweaty scalp.

Adam wondered why he was here. He did not want to teach physics, his concentration at Harvard hadn’t even been in STEM. He was going to become a damn lawyer for Christ’s sake. And it pissed him off that he had just learned yesterday he would make as much money teaching 30 hours a week at Aglionby as he did working 70 hours a week as a paralegal.

“You’re here because you’re meant to be here.” Persephone said, ending the tense silence that had settled over the room. Adam never truly forgot he was surrounded by psychics at Fox Way, but it had become so common a part of his association with them that he had begun to often not need to think about it. But when the memory went from the back of his mind to the forefront, the remembering startled him. It was like the color of your own eyes. You never really forgot if they were green or blue or brown, you saw them whenever you looked in the mirror. But sometimes you would look more closely, and see the bits of hazel in your green eyes, or the brightness in your blue eyes, or the nearly black tones of your brown eyes. You had seen it all before a thousand times, but still, they somehow surprised you.

“Because like or not, you have a connection with the Corpse Road. It wants you near it, on it.” Calla scrunched her nose, “Somehow that came out mildly sexual.”

“The Corpse Road has a special interest in you, Adam. That’s why it sent us those warnings seven years ago. It wants you protected. It can feel something is starting and, it wants you here.” Maura said.

“Alright, fine.” Adam sighed. “I guess I’ll need to find a place to stay that isn’t your couch.”

“It just so happens,” Maura began, smiling nearly wickedly, “that 301 Fox Way is up for rent. Or, it was. It came fully furnished.”

“Oh god.” Adam put his head in his hands “Fine. Fine, let’s go see it.”

 

 

301 Fox Way was an awful old two-bedroom home across the street from 300 Fox Way. But it was still better than his first student apartment, and miles better than sleeping on a couch. The kitchen had not been updated since the ‘80s, though according to Maura everything worked fine. The one bathroom had orange carpet and a navy toilet, shower-tub combo, and sink. It was ugly, but would serve its purpose. There was also dark wood paneling throughout the living room and the small dining room. Other than the year he had spent on the couch of 300 Fox Way for senior year, this would be the nicest place Adam had ever lived.

Maura and Calla had gone back home after showing Adam around the house. Persephone had brought with her extra linens, and Adam was helping her make the queen bed. He could tell she had something to say, but he wasn’t sure if she knew what it was yet. After knowing her for seven years, Adam still sometimes thought of her as a stranger. She was somehow like Adam, unknowable. He wondered if she was as lonesome as he was. Maura and Calla, the two people that knew Persephone best, had even admitted to often not understanding her.

“It’s all aligning now. The three will be five again, but it won’t be the same.” Persephone had found (or was it seen?) her words. Adam pulled the quilt a little straighter. Put a white pillowcase on his pillow, Persephone mirroring the motion with the other pillow. Adam knew there was no use asking Persephone to expound on her statement. It was possible she couldn’t even if she wanted to.

 

 

Three days later, Adam was driving toward Aglionby Academy for the first time since graduation. He would always remember that day, the pride and embarrassment he felt at having two rows filled by Fox Ways various inhabitants and their assorted female relations and half-relations. Where others in the audience were demure and resigned with dignity, they were colorful and loud as he walked across the stage to speak as the Valedictorian. He loved them for it. His own parents had not come. Looking back, Adam wondered why he had bothered inviting them. They didn’t even know he was back in Henrietta, and if he had any say, they wouldn’t ever know. He had no desire to see them again.

He parked near Whitman House, Aglionby’s administration building and where his office was located. He spotted Jonah Milo holding the door for him and quickened his pace. Milo, who had remembered him from his time as Milo’s student, had smiled and chatted with Adam when he had been introduced at the staff meeting by Headmaster Child the previous day. Adam had been nervous during the entire meeting, dreading the moment Barrington Whelk would walk in and notice him. The moment never came. Barrington Whelk, Milo informed him with a wry smile, often skipped non-mandatory staff meetings. Especially if they occurred on a weekend.

Adam exchanged greetings with Milo and excused himself from further conversation by mentioning the need to go over the syllabus Cavendish had left him. In his office, Adam took a moment to breathe. His first class wasn’t for another hour and it would consist of him trying to explain elastic and inelastic collisions to a group of 20 sixteen-year-old’s recently back from spring break. Adam wondered how Lester Cavendish had managed to do this for 36 years. He wondered how he would manage to do this for a year. In the hall outside his office, Adam could hear teachers and administration staff talking. He logged into his account on the staff portal and checked his e-mails. He had none. Adam flipped through the syllabus and course materials Cavendish had left behind for him for the 10th time that day. He looked at the clock on the wall. He looked at the watch on his wrist and frowned at the discrepancy, the clock on the wall was seven minutes too fast. After correcting the time, he had 30 minutes until his first class. He shoved the syllabus and course material back into his leather messenger bag and stalked out his door and down the hall. Six doors down from his office he paused. The name plate next to the door he had paused in front of read ‘Barrington Whelk’.

Adam had known for months that his old friend had returned to Aglionby Academy to teach Latin. Jonathan Peterson, former Aglionby swim team captain, had gone on to Harvard after a gap year spent volunteering in Peru and had somehow gotten the single next to Adam's in Hurlbut Hall Freshman year. They never became close, but they were Facebook friends. Jon, who was a faithful Alumni of Aglionby, had spotted Barrington at Reunion Week and promptly informed Adam about his old friend's employment via e-mail. Adam asked Jon if he had also seen Noah. The answer had been no.

Somehow, Adam’s fist was against the door, lightly tapping. Somehow, Barrington Whelk answered the same door a moment later. Somehow, Barrington Whelk had barely aged in seven years. Somehow, Barrington looked as though he had seen a ghost.

“What the fuck. Adam? Adam Parrish?” Barrington asked, looking from Adam’s face to Adam's shoes and back again.

“Barrington, hey.” Adam shifted from his right foot to his left. He wished Barrington would invite him into his office. “You weren’t at yesterday’s meeting. I, uh, I start here today. Teaching.”

“Christ. Christ. Old Cavvy quit over break, right. And you replaced him. You on your way to Welch?” Barrington shut his door and started walking down the hall. As Barrington stepped around him, Adam could smell alcohol trying to be masked by Fabreeze. He smelled like a hangover. His clothes looked slept in, wrinkled in a way Barrington would not have allowed while they had been students.

“We have a few minutes before class. We should talk. Catch up.” Adam said. He noticed a group of students coming from the athletics building calling to another group across the green.

“I have a few papers to grade before class. But later, yeah? After school we could get a couple drinks, maybe-.” Barrington stopped, mid-step. One of the boys from the group coming from the athletic building had broken off from the others and was walking towards Welch Hall. Barrington eyed him closely for several long moments before continuing, “maybe grab dinner or something.”

Adam agreed to meet with Barrington at Cavaliers Sports Bar after classes were over, although Adam didn’t drink and hadn’t ever cared about sports. The rest of his day was spent checking his watch, waiting, like most of his students, for the school day to end. He thought, perhaps, that teaching should be more interesting. After four classes, Adam knew who would be his disruptive students, who could be swayed to be disruptive students; who his good students were, and who the suck-ups were. In Adam's opinion that was the only four types of students there were. There were three students absent, though, by the reactions of the other students, they would likely be absent often.

After his last class had cleared and Tad Carruthers had stopped trying to chat with him about his family trip to Saint-Tropez, Adam drove across town to meet Barrington. He had arrived early. He needn’t have bothered. After Barrington failed to appear at their agreed upon time, Adam began making excuses. After an hour of waiting, Adam ordered hot wings and a too large order of onions rings. After the second hour with no sign of Barrington, he finally asked for the check. The waiter looked at him with eyes full of pity. Adam wanted to hate him, but he still tipped him 15%.

 

 

The next few weeks passed too slowly. One day creeping sluggishly to the next. Weekend mornings spent in bed, trawling through Facebook; an ex had gotten engaged, an old roommate was at Oxford, a former classmate was interning at the White House. Weekend afternoons and evenings spent at either 300 Fox Way or reading through Yale Law Review or Harvard Law review articles or ‘The Bramble Bush’ for the 2nd time. Weekdays, he spent in class, or grading papers, or preparing for class. Jasper Lockridge fell asleep at his desk and broke his wrist when he fell out of his chair. Joseph Kavinsky and Anastas Prokopenko, two of the three absent students he had had on his first day, he leaned came to class together or were absent together. Adam had not yet seen them apart.

Nothing had happened along the Corpse Road. Four days after Adam's arrival, Neeve Mullen had appeared. She had caused a stir when she pronounced, upon seeing Blue, that this would be the year Blue met her true love. Unfortunately, Blue would someday kill her true love if she kissed him. Adam had never been sure what exactly that meant, but he had felt it strongly. He had felt it, known it, in the first reading he had ever done for her. How do you tell a ten-year-old girl that she is destined to kill her true love? Easily, once you remember that she had already been told this over a dozen times by as many different psychics.

Adam was tired of the staleness of his life in Henrietta. He had come back nervous, expecting something horrible to happen. The most horrible thing that had happened was Tobias Montgomery accidentally leaving a porno mag on his desk. As he drove home from Aglionby, he stewed in his boredom. Today was worse than usual. Calla, who sometimes rode with Adam, had instead driven with Macy Landon and Nora Guernsey. Barrington continued to avoid him. His classes had been uneventful. The Corpse Road was refusing to do its job and cause some god damned excitement.

On the side of the road stood a Raven Boy, looking thoughtfully into the engine of a garish orange Camaro. The boy had a cell phone to his ear. Adam sighed and pulled over ahead of the Camaro. The boy was the same one that Barrington had been eyeing so closely a few weeks ago.

"What's the problem?" Adam asked, walking towards the Camaro.

"I don't know, sir, she just stopped. I've tried calling a tow truck but they aren't answering." The boy thrust at his hand at Adam, "Richard Gansey III, a pleasure to meet you mister?"

"Parrish. Adam Parrish. I teach physics at Aglionby but I don't believe I have you in my class, Mr. Gansey." Adam took the boy's hand. He had a firm, practiced handshake. "Do you mind if I take a look?"

"Just Gansey, please." Richard Gansey III extended his arm in a 'be my guest' gesture. Adam checked the alternator belt, the clutch cables. Everything seemed fine.

"I think your battery may have died. Let me pull my car around and I'll get you a jump." Adam jogged back to his car and started maneuvering it so the two car's hoods were aligned.

"Do you mind if I watch? I must admit I haven't a clue how to do this." Gansey asked. Adam shrugged. He ventured into his trunk and grabbed his jumper cables.

"You should have the cars nose to nose, but this shoulder isn't wide enough. Now with the Camaro, the battery is actually in the back, but see here? You can use this bolt for the negative charge and this," Adam pointed at the red plus symbol, "Is the positive terminal. Connect the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative."

When the Camaro roared to life, Adam showed Gansey the proper order to disconnect the jumper cables. Negative of support vehicle first, followed by the negative and positive of the vehicle getting jumped, and lastly the positive on the support vehicle.

"Keep your car running for a while or it could die again." Adam warned after returning the jumper cables to his trunk. Gansey had his thumb to his lips, a contemplative look causing a furrow to appear between his brows.

"What," Gansey said "do you know about Owain Glyndŵr, or as the English call him, Owen Glendower?"

Adam told him he had not even heard of him. What followed was a fantastical story of a Welsh king, with powers awesome and mysterious, battles fought and won against impossible odds, and a sudden and lackluster disappearance that was incongruous with the glorious life that Glendower had led. Even more fantastical was that Gansey believed Glendower had been secreted to Virginia, of all places, sometime in the second decade of the 15th century. But he wasn't really buried, he was sleeping. In Virginia. Awaiting some lucky finder to wake him, and once woken, Glendower would reward this waker with a favor.

Adam listened, almost indulgently. He wanted, for Gansey's sake, for all this to be true. And then Gansey continued, and Adam was surprised. Gansey knew about the Ley Lines. Gansey knew about the Ley Lines and it's favor, connected it to this Glendower, and he knew about the Church watch. Time was a circle. Adam ached suddenly, remembering how near to St. Marks Eve it was. Three days away.

"Where are you doing this Church watch at?" Adam sighed. If it were anywhere near Maura and Blue's Church, Adam would have to kindly direct him somewhere else.

"The Church of the Holy Redeemer. Its the Church nearest the Ley Line and its a Catholic Church. Glendower was Catholic. I put the two together." Gansey replied, his eyes alight. This was something he really cared about. It was this boys passion. Adam looked down the road stretching ahead. He popped the knuckles of his left hand, then his right. Gansey watched curiously as Adam returned to his car, rummaged in his leather messenger bag, and brought back a pen and a pad of paper.

"The way you talk, it seems this Ley Line in connected with an energy source. Energy takes many different forms, but its all still energy. Here," Adam had scrawled the number to 300 Fox Way and handed it to Gansey, "Call this number the day after St. Marks Eve, maybe they can help you out with this Ley Line stuff. That last number is an 8, not a 9. Dial a 9 and you'll get a gentlemen's escort company." Adam had learned that the hard way. He had been convinced that it was a prank of Orla's so he had talked with the receptionist for 15 minutes about the sort of male escort he wanted.

 After Gansey drove away, the number to a house full of psychics tucked away in his pocket, Adam thought of Noah. Barrington was being tight-lipped and was finding ever annoying ways to avoid him. Adam only wanted to know what happened, why they had run away without telling Adam. He wondered, sometimes, if they had planned it for St. Marks Eve or if it was spur of the moment. Noah hadn't taken anything from his dorm room. Everything of Barrington's had been taken by the Feds, but Noah's items had remained where he left them. It was like he had truly just stepped out for the evening, and once gone, had simply decided to not come back. That, Adam thought, would be a very Noah thing to do. 

 

 

_"Why don't you just leave, Adam?" Noah was gingerly touching the bruise that blossomed across Adam's ribs. His hair, made paler by the summer sun, was falling into his face. Adam wanted to reach up from where he was sprawled on his back and tuck it behind his ear. He resisted the pull, just barely._

_"You know why. We've had this discussion a thousand times. I can't just leave. I need to prepare, to get out on my own. I don't want to depend on you or Barrington. I could, but then I wouldn't be my own man. Once I graduate, then I'll be gone for good. I just need to hold out a little while longer, save a little more money." Adam huffed._

_"Or , you could just walk out the door. Grab your fucking Kelloggs box and walk away. If your dad asks where you're going you could just be, like, 'Suck my dick, old man!' or 'Kiss my ass, I don't need to tell you fucker!'. Something cool like that. And boom! You're gone." Noah said. Adam felt his brow furrow and his nose scrunch._

_"You sick bastard, I'm not tellin' my dad to suck my dick. The hell's wrong with you man?" Adam wanted to laugh. Noah was smiling down at him, mischievous and young and beautiful._

_"I thought that's just what you southerners were into, man." Noah shrugged. His smile broke and he sighed, flopping himself down on the bed next to Adam. It was a twin and too small for two teenage boys to lay next to each other. Neither minded the closeness._

_"Is that how you would go?" Adam asked. "Just walk out the door, not tell your parents or sisters anything, just go."_

_"I don't know, dude. Maybe. There's a kind of freedom to that, to know you could walk out the door and the whole world is out there. You could just keep going. Its like that scene in 'Forrest Gump' when the dude just like, starts running and he just keeps going, y'know? Like that. Don't think about it, just go man." Noah said, gesturing wildly with his hands. Adam reached up and grabbed them in his own hands. He ran his thumbs against Noah's knuckles._

_"This is real life, Noah. Not a movie." Adam sighed. Noah turned so that he was on his side, facing Adam._

_"So you don't want to tell your dad to suck your dick, fine, but is that because you've discovered you hate blow jobs or what? Is this something I should know about Adam?" Noah wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Or tried too, the effect was more comical than he had likely intended. Adam never answered, he just gave into temptation and brushed Noah's hair from his eyes and kissed him._

Adam shook his head, clearing it from those memories. He started his drive home. Three more days until St. Marks Eve. There was another boy searching for the Ley Line. It was finally starting.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Noah/Adam tag is there for a reason y'all.
> 
> I hate trying to figure out timelines. I think I'll post my timeline that I kinda worked hard on (I did actual research for this guys) once I finish this nonsense.  
> Like, Harvard doesn't do 'Majors', they have 'Concentrations'.  
> And before anyone calls me out for Adam taking time off between his undergrad and Law school, know that it's actually a really common thing to do lately, to take time and work. I think Harvard actually encourages it.
> 
> Also, I have a work contract with a woman that works 70 hrs a week for a huge law firm in the Midwest as a paralegal so that's how Adam got those hours.
> 
> Feel free to yell at me about stuff over on[ my tumblr ](https://daleyposts.tumblr.com/), which I rarely use but haven't yet abandoned.
> 
> Fun Fact! The colors of the bathroom, orange and navy, are also the colors of UVa! It was an accident too, and I just happened to get this idea that the old retired couple that were renting it out so they could move closer to their kids in Florida were big fans of the UVa baseball team, and it turned out that UVa's colors are navy and orange. Uh, go Cavaliers I guess?


	3. Uncertain Rustling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was very ill with a stomach bug for several days, and then I was traveling. I edited this at a hotels continental breakfast area.
> 
> As always, ubeta'd. My English is bad so, please, if you see something? Say something! :)
> 
> Chapter Warnings: Language, google translated Latin

 Blue Sargent entered the kitchen of 300 Fox Way and immediately wanted to back out. As was becoming more and more common these days, the conversation in the room had stopped when she entered. She was starting to get paranoid. Her mother, Neeve, Persephone and Calla were sitting at the table. Adam Parrish stood leaning with his back against the kitchen counter, a travel thermos of what Blue suspected was extra strong coffee gripped in his hands. He was wearing a gray suit, which she should have been used to, he wore one most of the days he was teaching. And she knew he always wore one when he worked in Boston, but she had only known t-shirt and jeans and occasionally coveralls Adam before March so suit Adam was still a bit surprising. He looked at her and smiled, but it looked almost like a grimace. Blue understood she had walked into an unpleasant conversation.

 "Blue," her mother said, "I have some business to attend to this evening. Would you be willing to still go to the Church watch? With your aunt Neeve?" Blue shrugged her shoulders and nodded.

 "I guess so, yeah." Blue hesitated. "Is Persephone coming as well, like last time?" She looked at Adam briefly as she said this and thought she caught a glimpse of Adam watching her before he looked into his thermos. Seven years ago, Blue had been all set to go with her mother to the old Church nestled in the hills outside of Henrietta when her mother had stopped suddenly. 10-year-old Blue had watched as her mother stood transfixed, her hand on the porch railing. When Maura had been released from the vision that had gripped her, she had turned on her heel and marched back through the door, calling for Calla and Persephone who both met her at the bottom of the stairs. After a brief discussion, Maura handed Blue off to Persephone while she and Calla sped off in the car. Persephone had taken Maura's place, asking names and jotting them down hurriedly in her flowery script. The next day, Blue discovered that Adam Parrish, the boy that she had heard her mother and the others whispering about for days had moved in after leaving the hospital. Another psychic was living in 300 Fox Way.

 "No, just your aunt Neeve." Maura answered, taking a sip of tea. The conversation was over.

 Adam pushed himself away from the counter and dug his keys out of his pocket, twirling them around his finger once, twice. He looked at Maura, a question on his face. She shrugged and nodded. It looked like they were finishing a conversation that had been interrupted.

 "Blue, grab your breakfast and let's go. Your mom is going to let you drive with me to school." Adam said. Blue clapped her hands and hurriedly grabbed the last blueberry yogurt from the fridge, ignoring Adam's frown at her meager breakfast. She skipped down the stairs and to the driver's door of Adam's car, catching the keys one-handed when Adam tossed them to her over the roof of the car. Her toes could barely reach the pedals from where Adam had shifted back the driver's seat, and Blue grumbled as she had to adjust it to its most forward position.

 As she jerkily drove down the road, Blue glanced at Adam at every stop sign and red light. He was beautiful. Blue had always thought so. When she was younger, she had an embarrassing crush on Adam Parrish. It was horrible being eleven and having your crush sleep on your couch, convinced that someday you would contract syphilis or typhoid fever or cholera and kill your crush with a kiss. She didn't know then what those diseases were, only that books had taught her they were gruesome and deadly. God, she thought, Syphilis. She wanted to slap her younger self. Maybe with a crowbar. Or a rusty knife. Wanting to break free from the memories of her embarrassing past, Blue asked the question that had been eating away at the back of her thoughts.

 "What did mom mean, that she was busy tonight?" Blue asked. Adam made a 'hmm' noise. It sounded like he was saying 'don't ask me Blue'.

 "Does it have to do with the reason you came back?" She tried again. This question had been nagging at her since March, the reason for Adam's return to Henrietta. He had wanted out so badly, and he had succeeded, gotten a life far away from dull Henrietta. She knew Maura had called him. She didn't know what her mom had said that caused him to come back and not just for a short visit while he was on break, but longer. He was a teacher at Aglionby now and for how long?

 When a car pulled out in front of her suddenly, Adam grabbed the roof handle with one hand and started slapping the dash with his other. Blue slammed on the brake.

 "Christ, okay, keep driving. Good job breaking, I guess." Adam said. "Maura would say that it was connected. She thinks everything is, y'know." Blue pursed her lips.

 "That's not an answer, Adam." She scoffed, "You've gotten good at those. Fine, be all riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. I'll still find your key."

 "Winston Churchill, good job, Blue." Adam said, reaching over to ruffle her hair.

 "Pshaw, you had me watch all those documentaries with you the last time you visited, some of it had to stick." Blue said, shy, suddenly, at being praised by Adam. So she maybe still had a tiny crush on Adam Parrish, whatever. It wasn't love.

 Blue took the first empty spot she could find in the crowded parking lot. She shut off the engine and took off her seat-belt but made no move to exit the car.

 "This is the year I meet him, Adam. That's what aunt Neeve said." Blue spoke, looking out of the windshield. She couldn't look in Adam's eyes. When he answered, Adam's voice was soft.

 "She could be wrong, Blue." They both heard it for the lie it was.

 

 

 

 Adam Parrish stood outside Borden House, frowning. He hadn't entered this building in years, but through the glass in the door, Adam could see they had yet to pull up the navy carpet from Adam's time as a student. It was near the end of the mid-morning break, and several boys had taken advantage of the warmth of a Spring day in Virginia and were sprawled along the grass of the quad. A few of them were eyeing him suspiciously, perhaps fearing he would reprimand them for their uniforms or for lying on the grass when they weren't supposed to. Adam grabbed the brass door handle, pulled the door open a few inches, and, as though burned, quickly released it. The door closed.

 "For fuck's sake, either go in or don't." A male voice growled. Adam turned to see an unfamiliar boy standing behind him, his arms crossed and his mouth twisted in a snarl. Beside the boy stood Gansey, who already had a placating hand on the other boy's shoulder.

 "Ronan, behave." Gansey warned, he beamed up at Adam and when he spoke again, his voice was all Old Southern Money. "Mr. Parrish, I apologize for my friend, Ronan Lynch. Unfortunately, I can't claim he isn't always this way."

 "You two have third period here?" Adam asked, shrugging off Gansey's apology.

 "No, we just like the aesthetic." Ronan scoffed. Gansey's hand on his shoulder visibly tightened.

 "We have Latin together, yes," Gansey answered. "Ronan is first in the class. Did you have business in Borden House?"

 "Nah, I thought I would try to catch Mr. Whelk between classes. There was something I wanted to discuss with him." Adam replied. He did not say that he was finally going to demand Barrington talk to him about Noah and what had happened, where the two of them had been all these years. Why they had never tried contacting him.

 "Good luck catching the slimy bast- ow, fuck, Dick are you trying to pinch off my fucking shoulder?" Ronan howled, jerking his shoulder free of Gansey's vice and rubbing it.

 "Well, we must be off! Punctuality is the politeness of kings and to arrive early is to arrive on time." Gansey said, already stepping around Adam, dragging Ronan with him.

 "Fortes fortuna sit punctualis." Adam replied. Ronan threw a shark-like grin back at him over his shoulder. Before the door of Borden house shut on them and cut off their conversation completely, Adam thought he heard Ronan say 'He the guy you were gushing to Noah about' but he couldn't be sure. The bell gave the 5-minute warning 2-minutes early. He had three more classes to teach and an exam to prepare and six students had scheduled meetings with him. Gazing up at Borden House one last time, Adam sighed and walked back to Welch Hall. He would just confront Barrington tomorrow.

 

 

 The next morning, Adam woke with a terrible neck-ache. He had accidentally fallen asleep on the couch while grading homework and barely had time to take a quick shower and change his clothes before he was running out the door. As he pulled onto the street, he cast a furtive look at 300 Fox Way. He had intended to spend the evening there, waiting for Maura to come home from her 'business', and for Blue and Neeve to come back from the Church watch to help go over the list of the future dead. Maybe help Orla take calls or bake a pie with Persephone while they waited. Instead, he had fallen asleep grading Henry Broadway's Physics homework. He was in a foul mood the rest of the morning, made worse by Jonah Milo casually informing him that Barrington had taken a sick day.

 As he pulled out the protein bar and bottled water he had stashed in his office in the emergency he ever forgot to bring lunch, the door of his office swung open and in walked Ronan Lynch. He eyed Adam's lunch with disdain, scoffed, said 'fuck this' under his breath and walked out of his office, only to return a few moments later.

 "Gansey called me. He wants me to ask if you could help him figure out why his stupid fucking car broke down again." Ronan said, sounding frustrated.

 "Oh. Well, it could be the battery again?" Adam suggested. Ronan shrugged his shoulders.

 "Dick thinks he may have just run out of gas, so he asked me to bring him some. If that's not it, he can call a tow." Ronan replied. He shifted from his left foot to his right before squaring his shoulders to continue. "He still wants you to come to take a look at it, thinks you're some kind of fucking car whisperer or some shit. He's not far, I could have you back before the end of lunch." Adam got the feeling Ronan wanted him to tell him no. Adam looked at his watch and stood. There was no way he was going to get in a car, alone, with a student. That was breaking a whole slew of the Academy's rules and the set up for even more lawsuits.

 "Right, I won't ride with you, but I'll follow you in my car. We can stop by the station for some gas, and I'll see what I can do once I get there." Adam said. Ronan looked unhappy with his answer.

 "What's wrong with just taking my fucking car?" He growled.

 "I don't want to get sued." Adam answered, already walking out the door.

 

 

 After ignoring Ronan's comment about how shitty his car was, getting the gas and a couples cans of Sea Foam, and Ronan going through the drive-thru of a burger joint Adam knew from a cousin of a friend's of Jimi's had barely scraped by its last seven health inspections, they finally pulled up behind the lurid orange Camaro. Adam thought he saw Barrington drive past before he got out of his car, but ignored it. Barrington was out sick. Gansey seemed unnaturally excited as he and Ronan approached.

 "Mr. Parrish! So glad you could make it, I fear I haven't a clue what could be wrong with it this time." Gansey said, exchanging what looked like a tape recorder for the food bag Ronan held. As Adam began adding the fuel, Gansey looked from Ronan to Adam, as though waiting to be asked something. He was proved right by Ronan.

 "What's this for?" Ronan asked, and Adam assumed he meant the tape recorder.

 "Play it and you'll see." Gansey answered. For several long moments, there was nothing but static. And then, eerily, Ganseys voice, saying his own name. What followed was what was a vaguely female voice and then Ganseys voice again saying 'that's all there is'.

 "I didn't say that. I sat in the parking lot of the Church of the Holy Redeemer all night and neither said nor heard anything. But as I was driving, I began playing back the tape. There was nothing, nothing, nothing, and then, suddenly, something. It was just there, my voice. Carried, perhaps, through the Ley Line." Gansey was practically thrumming with excitement. Adam removed the rag from his knees and stood. Something was not right. The Corpse Road had carried Gansey's voice back to him? On St. Mark's Eve? Was this what Maura meant, about the stirring on the Road?

 "Try the car Gansey." Adam said. Gansey jumped to obey, and, with some encouragement from Ronan (who called a car a pig?), the Camaro's engine growled back to life. "It should get you home, but there must be an underlying cause. Take it into Boyd's as soon as you can and get it taken care of." Adam continued.

 "I truly appreciate this, Mr. Parrish." Gansey said, his smile wide and bright.

 "No problem. You should call those psychics I told you about, this seems like something you could go to them for." Adam wasn't sure they would give him an answer, but they could.

 "Yes, of course! Thanks for the suggestion, Mr. Parrish." Gansey said at the same time Ronan sneered, "What psychics?"

 "Remember, that last digit is an 8, not a 9!" Adam called, already walking towards his car. He needed to get back to school, and then he needed to talk this over with Maura.

 

 

 Adam sat at 300 Fox Way and wished he were back in Boston. Maura had just informed him that had seen a spirit last night, that the spirit had given her the name 'Gansey'. That the boy had already booked an appointment.

 "I gave him your number Maura. He's just a kid looking for the Ley Line." Adam said, thinking of Gansey, his eyes warm and bright as he talked about his search for a sleeping Welsh king, his excitement at having heard his voice recorded in the tape. He would be dead within the year.

 "You were also a boy searching for the Corpse Road, Adam. It's dangerous business, sometimes. But Blue saw him, you know what that means." Maura answered, stirring her tea. Blue would either kill Gansey, or he was her true love. If he was her true love, she would kill him. 

 "So what happens now, Maura? I understand we can't really do anything to prevent his death. It has already happened. Are you planning on warning him at least?" Adam asked, but was already shaking her head.

 "Let him live his life. Watch over him if you like, but don't cry to me if you get involved and find yourself hurt." Maura cautioned, her voice warmer than her words. 

 "About Gansey. He may come with another boy tomorrow." Adam said before hesitating. There was something about Ronan Lynch that bothered him. He just didn't  _feel_ right. He continued,  "I can't explain it, but this other boy, he feels... like, standing really close to something big. You can't see how big it really is, but you can feel it's largeness. Does that make sense?"

 "'I am large, I contain multitudes'" Maura quoted. "I think I understand. Tomorrow we'll give this boy Gansey a reading, Adam. Perhaps this other boy will come along. Everything will be clearer then."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Multiple POVs, yay!!!  
> Sorry if this chapter was short, but it is a few days early at least! The next few chapters will follow the original schedule of one chapter every two weeks, likely on monday, Jan. 28 and Feb. 11.
> 
> Fortes fortuna sit punctualis - Fortune favors the punctual (Google translate).
> 
> Some of you have never had to teach your younger siblings to drive and it shows.
> 
> SO in my head this is set in 2014, but because April 24th 2014 was a thursday, and Blue skips school the next day (Friday), but Maura tells her to 'look peaked when she shows up to school tomorrow', and in the last chapter I said it was three days until St. Marks Eve, but it was a school day so just pretend that the 24th actually fell on a Monday. I'm so sorry.


	4. Eagerly I Wished the Morrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd, my English is bad and I would appreciate it if you pointed out any mistakes. Thank you!
> 
> Posting early because the Chiefs lost the AFC Championships and I'm disappointed. The Pats are a great team, but I was really rooting for the Chiefs :(  
> Chapter five should still be posted according to schedule on the 28th, but I'm about to be really busy so it may be a few days late.
> 
> Chapter warnings: Language, off-screen but still discussed bi-phobia/homophobia, mentioned drug use but within the context of a lie.

  _Barrington, Noah, and Adam sat on the floor around the map of Henrietta in Noah and Barrington's dorm room, going over the list of possible Ley Line locations. Noah kept trying to tap out the drum beat from Blink 182's 'Josie' using his ever-present red ink pen and a pencil he had stolen from Barrington, with mixed results. They had just come back from their fifth trip to the odd oak grove where they had read yet another set of odd energy readings. Adam had just suggested going there over Spring Break to try and perform whatever ritual was needed to energize the Ley Line. Barrington had insisted they wait until after St. Marks Eve so they could gain more information. Noah had agreed with Barrington._

 _As Noah played the last notes of 'Josie', Barrington left the room to make a phone call. When he had shut the door, Noah turned to Adam, smiling awkwardly. They had never officially dated, had never said they were boyfriends, but they did hang out together, made out sometimes, did stupid shit that got each other hurt often. They could be easy around one another in a way they couldn't be when they were with Barrington, either separately or together. Around Whelk there was a sort of bubble. Barrington demanded a certain level of attention, even when they were just eating at Nino's or throwing rocks at the windows of the old abandoned factory on Monmouth Street. He liked being the center, the leader, and reminding the other two boys of his position._ _But the easiness that had characterized Adam and Noah's friendship or relationship or whatever had changed last month, in early January, when Noah had come back from Winter Break and broke up with him. Adam reminded himself, as he punched the block wall of Boyd's Garage, that he and Noah had never really dated. They hadn't spoken for two weeks, until Barrington, tired or bored of their silence, had burst out suddenly one day while they ate lunch, that they need to 'fucking suck it up and quit acting like toddlers and get along'. So here they sat now, the day before Valentine's Day, getting along._

_But. But Adam had realized at some point, he had fallen in love with Noah. There was a moment at the end of last summer, between spay painting dicks on the Henrietta sign and climbing the water tower to throw empty beer bottles down at the ground just to hear them shatter and burning the roofs of their mouths with too hot pizza at Nino's and sharing smiles behind Barrington's back when he said something outlandish where Adam had looked at Noah, and his smile and realized he was in love with him. And then, a week after this terrible realization, Noah had been driving him around in his Mustang and told a stupid joke about inbreeding Southerners while Joel Madden sang about how he didn't want to be like you. Noah was supposed to be driving Adam back to Antietam Lane, back to the trailer house, but Noah had sped past the turn and neither had commented on it. It felt like too fragile of a thing to comment on. And then Noah had pulled off to the side of the road, tapped the steering wheel in time to the song. Adam sat in the passenger seat as another song played, and then the commercials, laughing at Noah when he sang along to the jingle of an insurance company. Mid-laugh, Noah leaned over the center console and kissed him. And kept kissing him. All while the commercials ended and Blink-182 and 'Adam's Song' began playing. Noah fumbled for the radio dial, only for the station to change to the Classic Country station that played every day at Boyd's and Tammy Wynette was singing about divorce and they both parted so they could laugh._

_They spent that fall together, kissing sometimes, doing more sometimes. Barrington couldn't know, neither of their parents could know. If Adam's parents found out he liked kissing boys like Noah the same way he liked kissing girls like Gina Prouse and Trinity Warren, there would be hell to pay. His dad had made his opinions very clear about people like Adam. It was one more reason Adam wanted out. He was under no illusion that bigotry didn't exist outside of Henrietta and his father's house, but at least once he was out, he could be_ out _and it not result in his looking at the business end of a 9mm. And while the repercussions of Adam's parents finding out what he was doing with Noah would be quick and physical, Noah had made it clear that while his parents wouldn't care, they would tell his Baba, or grandma, whom he loved with all his heart, would. The same night they had first kissed, Noah had explained it to him, about his very old fashioned, very Catholic grandmother who still spoiled him with sweets and kisses and pinched cheeks. Adam had to keep the secret out of fear, Noah kept the secret out of love._

_That was all over now. Tomorrow, Noah would be going on a double date with Barrington and his girlfriend Sherri and Sherri's friend, Kristie. Noah wouldn't have to keep her a secret. Adam wasn't jealous, he was just tired of feeling lonely. Of feeling lonesome. Noah had helped lessen his lonesomeness until he sometimes didn't feel it at all, and even though they were back to being just friends, that hadn't changed. Yes, it was awkward and strange but it wasn't so awkward or strange as to be uncomfortable._

_"I'm so sorry Adam, I'm so sorry." Noah said, and his voice was sad and sounded so far away._

 

 Adam woke up, sweating and nauseous. He remembered that night in the dorm room, but unlike the dream, Noah hadn't apologized. Noah had been laughing while he told Adam about Jon Peterson getting punched in the nose by a waitress at Nino's. Adam had laughed along, relieved that Noah had somehow eased the awkwardness Adam was feeling. Adam now scrubbed a hand down his face. What had Noah been apologizing for? Why the shift from an actual memory to something else? Maybe his subconscious had connected that memory to his feelings of abandonment and, attempting to give Adam some, what, closure? Took that memory and those feelings and had Noah apologize to him? Adam was not a psychologist, but it seemed like a reasonable theory. Too bad it didn't work. Adam didn't want an apology, he wanted an explanation.

 Swinging his legs over the bed, Adam remembered what today was. The day of Gansey's appointment, the day he had decided to confront Barrington. After changing, he made his way into the kitchen, surprised to find Blue perched on the counter, scowling at the knitting needles and yarn in her hands. There was a pot of coffee freshly brewed next to her, a cup already poured. So, she hadn't sneaked into his house to kill him with knitting needles. That was a relief.

 "Is that a hat?" Adam asked, taking a sip of coffee. Blue shrugged her shoulders. They had argued last night, Blue demanding he tell her everything he knew about Gansey, Adam suggesting she wait and just meet him for herself. Blue hadn't stopped arguing with him so much as she had refused to keep speaking to him. 

 "Do you want to drive to school again today?" Adam tried again. Blue paused her knitting and looked at him. He hid a smile with another sip of coffee at her trying to look angry while clearly excited about the prospect of driving. Blue nodded her head, once. He eyed the spoon in his sink and, when he opened the refrigerator he noticed all three yogurts he had were gone. It was fine, he bought them for Blue anyway. Frowning at what remained in his fridge, Adam shut the door and turned back to Blue.

 "Think you still got room for McDonald's?" Adam asked. Blue's resulting scoff very clearly indicated that, yes, she did have room for McDonald's.

 

 

 

 It was obvious that Barrington Whelk had not expected Adam to just open his office door, came in and shut the door behind him. Adam wondered for a moment if he should lock the door as well, but decided that seemed a touch too dramatic. Barrington clicked off whatever window he had open on his computer as soon as he saw Adam, and he really hoped he hadn't been watching porn.

 "I want an explanation, Barrington." Adam said, hoping it didn't sound like begging. Barrington looked from Adam to the computer screen and back again, nervous.

 "About?" Barrington asked. Adam rolled his eyes.

 "About you and Noah?" Adam prodded, hoping Barrington would stop avoiding the question.

 "Me and Noah?" Barrington shifted in his seat. Adam felt his nerves beginning to fray.

 "Yes, you and Noah. What happened on that St. Marks Eve, seven years ago? Where did you go? What happened, Barrington?" Adam asked. Barrington sighed heavily, slumped down in his seat, and gazed out his window.

 "You know what happened with my parents, right? Right. My whole life came crashing down, I lost everything. I remember standing in the parking lot of Aglionby and Noah pulling up beside me in his Mustang. He asked if this made me white trash, you know how Noah w- is, how Noah is. I wanted to tell you, Adam, I did, but Noah said we should leave you behind. That you needed Aglionby in a way Noah didn't and I that couldn't anymore. Noah wanted to head west, to California. Said that was where he belonged and he was sick of living in the sticks. So that's where we went.

 We spent a year trying to live in San Diego. Noah met some skater friends, fell into a life I couldn't. You want to know where Noah is? So do I. He's gone, man. Even if you could find him, in San Diego or L.A or, hell, I don't know, anywhere between here and there, you wouldn't find Noah. Fuck, the last time I saw him, he was so gone from the drugs he didn't even recognize me. You want an explanation, Adam? That's it."

  Adam felt nauseous again. He tried to picture Noah, warm and sunny and sometimes annoying Noah, as Barrington described him. He wondered if Noah was even still alive, and a cold shiver ran down his spine. He needed fresh  air, he needed to get out of this office. Barrington stood as though he would walk him out, but Adam told him to stay, he needed a moment. Outside, the nausea didn't go away, but it did become bearable. He leaned against the cold brick of Whitman House. All these years, all this time wondering what had happened, all those nights where sleep was lost to him because of worrying about Noah and Barrington and he had his answer. They had fucked off to California and Noah hadn't wanted Adam to know. Had probably kept Barrington from telling him as well. Adam tried to imagine why, and could only remember Noah breaking up with him a few months before he and Barrington left. Maybe Noah just didn't want Adam following after him and Barrington, because he still liked Noah and was attracted to Barrington in a way that was often maddening, and Noah probably knew that. 

 "Good morning, Mr. Parrish!" Gansey called, striding past with a group of boys Adam half-recognized as the schools much lauded crew team. Adam waved back and felt his nausea increase again. The boy would be dead by next spring. 

 

 

 Ronan Lynch did not want to be standing outside of 300 Fox Way, but Gansey had insisted he come along. He had left Chainsaw in the Pig and wished he could have stayed behind with her. Last night, after he found out Declan had come over with his new one night girlfriend while he was at practice, Ronan had gotten pissed off and stormed out. At some point, he had raced Kavinsky, and then he got drunk and fell asleep in a pew at St. Agnes. The next thing he knew, Gansey was waking him up and he had a baby raven to take care of. Gansey had been upset and tired, having spent the night searching for Ronan, and Noah had shown up at the church and been creepy. Ronan noticed Parrish's shitty car was parked across the street and sneered. He didn't know what the fuckers deal was, but Gansey hadn't shut up about him since he had fixed the Pig. Gansey knocked on the door, and it was opened by a tiny girl with hair sticking out all over her head and clothes that looked like they had come from a dumpster. 

 "Ah, hello, miss. My name is Richard Campbell Gansey III. I had an appointment for this afternoon?" Gansey said, smiling like a crooked politician.

 "Gansey?" The girl asked, and something about how she said it made Ronan stare at her more closely.

 "Yes, Gansey." Gansey said. Inexplicably, his cheeks were pink. The girl bit her lip and just stared at them for a moment until an older woman that looked like she was maybe the girl's mom appeared behind her.

 "Oh, Mr. Gansey! Do come in, come in. I am Maura Sargent, and this is my daughter, Blue." Maura said, confirming Ronan's suspicion, and stepped aside so Gansey and Ronan could enter. As soon as they stepped through the door, Ronan noticed two other women, one with lots of hair and another that was squinting at him, watching him like he was prey. Ronan suppressed a snarl. The one with all the hair looked at Gansey and Ronan and smiled.

 "Oh, the three are five and the seven may not even matter." she said.

 "The fuck?" Ronan said at the same time Gansey said, "Pardon?" 

 "Ah, it's so nice to have everything properly." Was all Crazy Hair Lady said before they were all shuffled into another room.

 After the witches had shouted about how loud he and Gansey were and told Gansey his fortune, and been cryptic as fuck, Ronan did something fucking stupid and demanded to know a true thing. When the witch touched him and started fucking talking about how a secret had killed his father, Ronan had had enough. He stomped back to the Pig to wait for Gansey to finish his little witch escapade. Across the street, a door opened and Adam Parrish walked out. He wasn't in his usual suit that made him look like an asshole but in jeans and a faded gray t-shirt that said "VERITAS" in dark red. It made him look younger, more comfortable. He caught Ronan watching him, but Ronan refused to look away so they watched each other for several long moments through the glass of the passenger door window. Parrish broke first, looking back at 300 Fox Way with thinned lips. Again, Ronan wondered what his deal was, why he had given Gansey the number to this castration palace. Suddenly, Parrish turned on his heel and marched back into the house. A few moments later, Ronan was startled by Gansey opening up the driver's door. He was practically glowing.

 "They know something Ronan. They wouldn't tell me what, but they know something. Do you know what this means?" Gansey asked him, his smile real and his eyes shining.

 "That they're a bunch of flaky witches that are just fucking with you?" Ronan answered, feeling it was more the truth than whatever Gansey wanted him to say.

 "It means, Ronan, that we are on the right track." Gansey answered, used to Ronan's sarcasm. "Excelsior!"

 

 

 Maura Sargent sat at the tiny, cluttered kitchen table of 301 Fox Way. If she noticed that Adam felt like shit, she had the grace to not comment on it. He was still thinking about what Barrington had said about Noah, and he had been thinking about where Noah could be, if he was lonely or needed help. He had even looked up the distance between Henrietta and San Diego, knowing while he did it that his car would never make it that far. Even if he got there, what were the chances he would ever find Noah? This wasn't a fucking Hallmark movie. And then there was the news that Maura had brought over with her. Calla had used her psychometry on Ronan, she said that he was creating. Adam tried to guess what that meant, but came up empty. Calla apparently didn't even know what it meant, but she had also called him a snake. Adam thought of the Ouroboros, the snake that devours its own tail. Creating life through destruction. 

 "I think," Adam said, "that I want to see what happens Maura."

 "And I think you should stay away. I've told Blue to. This isn't why you're here, Adam." Maura said, raising an eyebrow when Adam scoffed.

 "Maura, c'mon. Something is starting and we both know Gansey and Ronan must have a part to play. This isn't like seven years ago, I think these boys are closer than we ever were. Tell me it's coincidence Neeve comes to help you with whatever it is you won't tell me about at the same time that these boys show up, asking about the Ley Line. That Blue sees Gansey's spirit. That you and the others see my return so clearly." Adam insisted.

 "You're starting to sound like me." Maura sniffed.

 "Thanks." Adam replied, honestly. Maura tapped her fingers on the table, in an odd staccato. 

 "Now, tell me why you look like you look so awful." Maura said. Adam groaned as he rested his head in his hands. Of course, Maura would notice when Adam felt like shit, of course, she would comment on it. Adam didn't believe in luck and maybe that was because he had never been lucky.

 "I talked to Barrington today, finally. About Noah." Adam said.

 "Ah," said Maura, "tell me everything." And Adam did.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baba is a pretty Polish-American thing to say, for all that it isn't really Polish? It's like Grandma??? I don't think it's actually used in Poland, but I don't know. And I know it isn't pertinent to the story, but know that Noah's Baba/Grandma would have loved Noah no matter what, and he would always be her beloved grandson. Anyway, don't hate her, please. In my head she is just a super sweet old lady that would have gone to pride with her grandson and knitted him scarves in the color of his flag and held his hand and given him kisses and sweets and pinch his cheeks forever if she could. 
> 
> Veritas is latin for 'Truth' and is Harvard's motto.  
> Also, I uh, don't know if you can tell, but I listened to a lot of punk/pop punk, in the 2000s and I took Noah's Blink-182 sticker and ran with it. So uh, 'Joel Madden sang about how he didn't want to be you' is a reference to Good Charlotte and The Anthem.  
> You really can't make out to Adam's Song by Blink-182... its too sad.  
> Tammy Wynette singing about divorce is her song 'D-I-V-O-R-C-E'. I used to listen to a lot of old country music, thanks to my relatives. (And myself, yes I like some country music, sue me!)
> 
> As always, thanks for reading!


	5. Deep into the Darkness Peering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone that has read, kudo'd, subscribed, bookmarked, or commented thus far - It really makes my day!!  
> Unbeta'd, and English is a baaaaad subject for me - if you see something that could be improved, please tell me!
> 
> Some dialogue taken directly from The Raven Boys, so credit to Maggie for that.
> 
> Chapter Warnings: A friendship develops between a 24 yr old and a 17 yr old, language, Implied/referenced Past Canonical Child Abuse, descriptions of violence (unsure if they count as graphic),

 Adam Parrish had had the misfortune to have been asked an excruciating amount of questions that he found bothersome in his lifetime. How are you? How did you get that bruise? Are you sure this isn't just a phase? He currently had the pleasure of adding being asked to ride in a helicopter in search of Ley Lines to the list. The question bothered him for a few reasons. One, because the helicopter apparently belonged to Gansey's older sister, and Gansey seemed oblivious to how ridiculous it was to just casually mention that your sister had a helicopter. Two, because he hated flying with a passion. And three, because Gansey had asked him this in his office with Ronan Lynch standing behind him, his arms crossed and his face murderous. Adam wondered if he should feel threatened by a teenager, and found the thought funny. His father had been more intimidating in his sleep.

 Also, a Saturday spent doing something he hated, flying, with a bunch of teenagers was not what Adam would call a fun Saturday. It sounded like work. Like he was supervising a school excursion. He was ready to tell Gansey no, when he thought of Blue. She had experienced magic for herself on St. Marks Eve, enough to make her curious and thirsting for more. How similar these two were, Gansey and Blue; both wanted to confirm for themselves that magic was out there. He knew Maura had told her to stay away. He also knew that sometimes, teenagers needed to rebel. Orla had done it, and she turned out mostly alright. And Maura had helped Adam do it in the form of pressing charges against Robert, and that had ended with the judge declaring that Adam had, in fact, just cause for said charges. That, while receiving no sentence beyond a years probation, Robert Parrish had done wrong. So, Adam was all for a little healthy rebellion.

 "Right," Adam sighed. "okay. When and where are we starting this helicopter fiasco?"

 "Smashing!" Gansey exclaimed, as though that were a normal thing to say. "Do you know the factory on Monmouth?" Adam nodded. Of course he knew the old factory. He had a dozen different memories of Noah and Barrington there. "Right, well, Ronan and I have converted it into an apartment."

 "You live there? Off campus?" Adam asked. He wondered how many windows he, and Noah, and Barrington had broken with slingshots and rocks during Junior year. He bet they were a pain to have replaced. The thought made him feel a little guilty.

 "Yes. Dorm's are such a waste of money, but with Monmouth, I can at least recuperate my losses. Real estate is always a sound investment. Anyway, I say we meet there around 3-ish?" Gansey suggested. Adam shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't as though he had other plans. Gansey beamed at his answer, as unenthusiastic as it was, and spent the rest of their lunch break ardently showing him the journal he had lovingly kept in his search for Glendower and the Ley Lines. 

 

 

 "How do you feel about helicopters?" Was the first thing Adam said to Blue when he showed up to pick her up from school. He was leaning against the passenger side of his car and tossed her the keys as she walked towards him.

 "Like, in general?" She asked, excited at the prospect of getting to drive. Ever since Adam came back to live in Henrietta, her time spent behind the wheel and off her bicycle had increased drastically and she loved it.

 "As a means of transportation. Though now I am curious about your feelings towards helicopters in general as well." Adam replied, buckling his seat-belt.

 "Uh, in general? I don't like the name. Helicopter. It sounds like a fake word." Blue said, adjusting the rear-view mirror. "As a means of transportation? Faster than camels, but less sustainable. Why?"

 "How would you feel about riding in one?" Adam said, and Blue wondered where this line of questioning was supposed to lead. 

 "I don't know, I've never flown anywhere. It could be fun though, right?" Blue said and laughed at Adam's look of displeasure. It was a well known fact at 300 Fox Way how much Adam hated flying.

 "Gansey wants to take a helicopter up tomorrow to look for the Ley L- the Corpse Road and he want's me to come along. I told him I would." Adam answered.

 "And he just happens to have a helicopter he can use? Raven Bastards." Blue scoffed. 

 "I know." Adam huffed. "What do you think about coming along? Christ, Blue! Eyes on the road!" Blue had whipped her head to look at Adam and nearly swerved into the wrong lane, correcting her course just in time.

 "What, in a helicopter? With a bunch of Raven boys?" Blue considered it. On the one hand, it sounded worse than stepping on a rusty nail and getting tetanus. On the other hand, magic and adventure. "Heck yeah I'll go." She proclaimed. Adam laughed at her eagerness.

 The rest of the drive home was spent with Blue telling Adam about the Hydrangeas she had planted in Mrs. Thorpe's garden, and about which of the dogs she walked on Sundays were her favorites. Adam listened and didn't even complain when she took the long way home to get in extra driving time. 

 When she pulled the car into Adam's drive-way, he followed her into 300 Fox Way, ignoring his own house. Blue had noticed he seemed down about something for the last few days, but was scared to ask him about it. You had to be careful with Adam when it came to his feelings. She wanted to ask him again if he knew why Neeve was here, if it was for the reason she suspected; finding her dad. Orla was in the kitchen when they came in, and Adam talked to her about the odd calls she had received that day. Blue sat on the counter and watched them chat, thinking about all the strange things that had been happening; Adam's return, and Neeve's visit. This morning, Neeve had freaked her out when she had found her scrying and Blue wanted to ask Adam about that as well. If psychometry was Calla's specialty, Blue had always thought that scrying was Adam's. If only Orla, who liked to lord over Blue with the fact that she was psychic while Blue wasn't, weren't in the room. She shouldn't have let her nerves get in the way and talked to Adam about it in the car. Tomorrow. She would ask him tomorrow.

 

 

 The following afternoon, Adam watched amused as Blue sat on the curb, near the trash. When Calla's carpool dropped her off, she talked with Blue for several moments before the two walked into the house to continue their conversation. It reminded Adam that they should probably walk to Monmouth later, instead of letting Blue drive. He remembered going through the same thing with Orla, though Blue wasn't a bad driver so much as she was inexperienced. Orla seemed to like driving in a way that would purposely bring Adam to an early grave, while Led Zeppelin blasted in the background. 

 After finishing his last few chores around the house, and going through Monday's quiz questions one last time, Adam walked across the street and knocked on the door. He could her Persephone's angry music filtering from her window, a sign she was working on her dissertation. Blue must have been waiting for him, because she opened the door before Adam's knuckles could make a third connection.

 "Can we show them the church?" She asked in a whisper, careful that she was near his hearing right ear. 

 "I think that's up to you, Blue. It's your church." Adam said, surprised at the question. They began walking together towards Monmouth, Blue looking forlornly at Adam's car, disappointed she wouldn't get to drive. Blue reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of folded paper, and silently handed it to Adam. It was a crude map of the church. Adam himself had never been, though he vaguely knew it's location. Blue's map, while crude, was at least better than he could have done.

 "Do you think you'll be able to give the pilot directions from the air?" He asked, handing her back her map.

 "I think so, yeah." Blue hesitated. "Something happened yesterday, Adam. I woke up early, I think before dawn and I went down to the yard. I found Neeve by the Beech tree. She said she was scrying but something had, I don't know. Possessed her? It spoke through her. That doesn't sound like scrying, not like how you do it. She said there was something in the hollow place that knew my name." 

 Adam stopped walking, and regarded Blue. "Scrying can be dangerous." He admitted. "Especially when you are around. No, don't look like that. It's not a bad thing. When I scry I have to be careful, make sure I have a tether to my body so I can come back. What Neeve did was stupid, scrying in Henrietta and not taking your possibly showing up into consideration."

 "Because I make the conversation louder and because Henrietta is on a Ley Line. Neeve said it makes being a psychic here easier." Blue said. Adam regarded her a moment.

 "Yes, that's true." He said. "The Ley Line, or Corpse Road, does make it, well, easier, I suppose. When I'm not directly on the Line, I can still scry, but not as clearly or as easily."

 "Do you know about the hollow place she was talking about? She tried to find Gansey by scrying, that first day after I saw his spirit in the church and she said he had disappeared into it." Blue had started walking again, thankfully, so she didn't see the way Adam frowned. The hollow place. Adam, admittedly, wasn't sure what that was. He knew it existed, had wondered if it was like how when he tried to scry for Noah and it always felt empty, perhaps because Noah was simply too far from the Line. But he had never specifically wanted to scry into that place. He had been warned against it too often.

 "Adam?" Blue asked, and he realized it wasn't the first time she had called his name. She had stopped walking several feet ahead of him but had stopped again, and was turned around and looking at him oddly.

 "Sorry. Right. The hollow place. It's creepy Neeve said something there knew your name, but that could be nothing. It could also be something." Adam said, and didn't flinch when Blue playfully swatted his arm. It had taken years for anyone at 300 Fox Way to be so physical, and it had taken Adam years to not have to flinch when they finally did. He ruffled her hair and used his height to his advantage, talking long strides towards Monmouth, Blue cursing him and huffing to keep pace.

 

 When they finally reached Monmouth, they were a few minutes late. Adam saw the helicopter and wanted to laugh again at how ridiculous it was. He then saw what was perhaps the beginnings of a ramp, perhaps for skateboarding. Monmouth was somehow not as desolate or foreboding as he remembered. Gansey was approaching them quickly, glancing hurriedly between himself and Blue. Possibly, he should have asked if Blue could come along. 

 "Hello!" He shouted at them, and he did have to shout. The blades of the helicopter would have drowned out anything less. Adam saw him say something at Blue, he thought he might have been asking if Blue were coming as well, possibly he was asking how they knew each other. And, right. Adam hadn't told Gansey about his connections to Blue and her family, he was fucking stupid. Blue was standing near enough to his hearing right ear that he could hear her reply, and wanted to frown at the way she hid her accent. Adam had clipped his vowels and trained his own accent since he was sixteen and still only slipped when he was around people he was comfortable with. There were not many people Adam was comfortable with. To hear Blue do it felt wrong. Like she had something to be ashamed of in her accent, even though that was hypocritical of him.

 Gansey was staring at him expectantly. He must have said something to him that needed an answer. He hadn't been able to hear exactly what Blue had responded, but he thought she had clearly conveyed that they were family friends. Blue, noticing he was about to panic, laid her hand on his forearm and shouted "Lets go!".

They went. Blue grabbed his hand and held it tightly, grounding Adam. Adam really fucking hated flying. He had tried to not think about the fact that they would be going up into a metal flying death trap all day, but now he was looking at it, blades whirling, and statistics that he had researched last night playing over and over in his head. When they reached the helicopter, Gansey looked back and at their joined hands. A complicated look passed over his face, but was smoothed away as quickly as it had come. Adam felt compelled to tell Gansey how much he hated flying, but somehow he couldn't find the words before a pair of clunky and expensive looking headphones were passed over to him. He had wondered about being able to hear the others over the sound of the helicopter, and was thankful he wouldn't have to rely on Blue to either talk for him or translate his alphabet signing.

 Ronan Lynch was sitting in the back row seat, staring as murderously at him and Blue as he had in his office the previous day. Adam remembered what Maura had told him about what Calla had felt when she touched him; this boy is creating. Creating what, Adam didn't know. It was another mystery that Adam wondered if he would ever see the conclusion of. 

 "Aren't you going to introduce us, Dick?" The pilot asked from where she sat in the front seat.

 "Blue, Mr. Parrish," Gansey said, his smile a little strained, "I'd like you to meet my sister, Helen."

 

 

 After, after Blue and Ronan had their little fight, after Blue directed them to the church. After Blue confessed to having seen Gansey's spirit on the Ley Line, after those tense several moments that followed this confession. After Gansey told Blue all about the Nazca Lines, after Adam interrupted this to point out the strange markings below, they finally landed. Adam was not a dramatic person, but he had a thrilling moment when he could have bent down and kissed the earth beneath him. In a moment, Blue was beside him, and Adam thought about how she must love this place, surrounded as it was by trees, and grass, and nature. He could smell water, somewhere in the distance. 

 "Do you still hate flying?" She was asking him, smiling.

 "Yes. I still hate flying. You?" Adam knew the answer by the way she smiled.

 "I didn't hate it," Blue admitted. "but I can see why you would. You have to give up control, and you hate giving up control." Adam thought she was probably wrong. Yes, he hated giving up control. But also, he hated being several hundred or thousand feet in the air in metal death boxes that would leave you dead if there was the slightest human error or machine failure. Adam had been a mechanic for long enough that he knew how easily machines could fail, and he had been around humans enough to know how often they made terrible errors.

 "ARE YOU LISTENING, GLENDOWER? I AM COMING TO FIND YOU!" Gansey suddenly shouted, startling Adam badly. He tried to remember if he had ever known someone so painfully enthusiastic, and came up blank.

 The next thing he knew, they were talking about oyster shells, and Gansey and Blue were discussing, of all things, EMF readers. Adam ached, suddenly, for Noah and Barrington, and what had been. It was an old ache, that always managed to surprise him with its suddenness and fierceness. When Blue and Gansey began walking to the treeline, Adam followed, half listening, half thinking about the past. How appropriate that his watch stopped working, how very fucking poetic.

 "Noah?" Gansey called, he sounded forlorn. Adam tried to breath normally. He thought he felt something at his left ear, a gnat, possibly. "I thought I heard-"

 Gansey had been interrupted by the sight of a small pond. There were fish in it. There should not have been fish in this pond, it didn't make sense.

 "Parrish!" Ronan was calling, interrupting Adam's thoughts on the oddness of the fish. He followed his voice away from the pond until he found Ronan, standing by on old oak tree. The cavity in the tree was like something from a horror film. Ronan was looking at him with raised brows. Adam stepped into the tree.

 Barrington was laying on the ground in front of him, his head was surrounded by blood. Beside him was Noah, who was one his knees, part of his face was gone. Adam looked down, a gun was in his hand. He looked back up, and Barrington was kneeling beside Noah now, blood pouring from his forehead from a bullet hole. They were both staring up at Adam with blank eyes. With dead eyes. Noah was reaching towards Adam, his face twisted in a grimace.

 "Why?" He demanded.

 Adam threw himself from the tree, gasping for breath and trying not to retch. He may have shouted, but couldn't remember. Ronan eyed him warily, his arms crossed over his chest. Blue and Gansey were at his side a few moments later, and Adam was telling them to go into the tree. He thought it might have been reckless of him to do so, but he wasn't sure if he had just seen a psychic vision or something else entirely. He had never had a vision before, and was confused why they would start now. 

 Blue emerged from the tree looking embarrassed and a little queasy. He wanted to ask what she saw, but Gansey was stepping into the tree. When he stepped out, he was smiling and telling them he had seen Glendower. Adam had no idea what the fuck was going on. When they got back to Monmouth, Adam passed on going to get gelato with the others, trusting Blue to be able to explain how she knew where the Ley Line was. He could have helped them with his small amount of knowledge regarding how time sometimes time didn't work right on the Line, but his mind was too busy running over everything that had happened. The visions, the fish, and the way time was affected.

 

 

 The next two weeks passed in an odd way for Adam; he was busy with his classes, he had to drive to D.C on the weekend for a former classmates wedding that happened to double as a networking event. Gansey and, often, Ronan with him, occupied a good deal of his lunch breaks and office hours. There was something about Gansey that left Adam not begrudging this incursion on his work life. Adam had never been able to make friends quickly or easily, not after Barrington and Noah, and here he was, thinking of this teenager as a friend. It was, perhaps, inappropriate. But Gansey's other friend was an elderly British man, so perhaps it wasn't that bad.

 He did not go back to Monmouth, though Blue often did. And though he wanted to, he did not withdraw into himself in his kitchen or by Blue's Beech tree when she talked about the mysterious third member of Gansey's Aglionby and Glendower entourage, Noah. He was glad that Blue was finally making friends that weren't her family or himself. She was enjoying the outings they took, she enjoyed looking through Gansey's journal, which, apparently held the same markings that Maura had drawn, markings of the Ley Line.

 When Blue told him about what happened when they went back into the woods, the trees speaking (Latin of all things, and he wondered if he should tell them about the Latin Barrington had stumbled across in the woods), the forest having a name - Cabeswater, magic, the way the seasons changed, the old car they found, abandoned, Adam wasn't sure what to feel. Happy? Surprised? Relieved? Angry? Excited? He knew his emotions were constantly fluctuating, going from one feeling to another to another. Adam hadn't felt this way in a long time, since he was a teenager. Beyond all of this, he had to deal with Maura's side glances. She was piqued that he had encouraged Blue's little rebellion that led to her hanging out with the boy Maura had forbade her from seeing. Adam wished he could explain to Maura that he felt this was necessary, but every time he tried to find the words, they slipped away.

 He wondered if this was how Persephone felt. This vagueness that you knew you could feel _something_ , but you could neither explain to others nor yourself how or why you knew it. Only that you had to let it happen, and not prevent it if you were able. Adam forgot, sometimes, the way the Ley Line could enhance psychic abilities. While Boston was, technically, located on the Line, it was far enough out to dampen the power so that Adam rarely felt it. But in Henrietta, he had more psychic premonitions (not full visions, never those), more precise than in Boston. And on the rare occasions he scryed or read tarot, they were clearer as well. 

 Adam was interrupted from his thought's by a knock on his office door. Glen Fukunaga, on of the office secretaries opened the door, a cup of what Adam hoped was coffee in his hand. 

 "Would you care for some coffee?" He laughed, seeing the way Adam looked hopefully at the cup in his hand. Adam hadn't noticed before, but the administration building seemed unusually noisy. Typically, when the teachers and administrators had to come in on a weekend to work, especially on a week they were expected to work through Friday, everyone went quietly and rancorously about their work.

 "What's all the commotion about?" Adam said, after thanking Glen and taking a sip of his coffee.

 "Haven't you heard?" Glen replied, eye's lighting with the chance to spread some gossipy news. "The police called. Some kids were on a hike and they found the body of an Aglionby student out in the woods."

 "Christ. Who?" Adam asked, thinking about the kids in his Physics classes. They weren't exactly peaches, but they were still just kids. Then he thought of Gansey, who would be dead within the year and he felt nauseous. 

 "They haven't released the name yet." Glen answered with a frown. "Probably Childs just wants to make a big show of it. Get the family in first or something. Well, I better be off, Macy was wanting to take a smoke break but she forgot her cigarettes today, and she'll be wanting to borrow on from me. " 

 Adam thanked him again for the coffee while his cell phone started ringing. There was an unknown number with a DC area code calling, but that was normal. Probably a sales call or some old classmate that had settled in DC and changed their number. He ignored it and went back to work. The phone rang again, the same number. When a series of text's started coming in, demanding he answer the phone followed immediately by the phone ringing a third time, Adam finally answered.

 "Adam?" Blue said, one the other end of the line.

 "Blue? Whats going on? Did something happen?" Adam demanded, standing up, panicking at the way her voice sounded strange. Why was she calling? Why was she calling from a strange number?

 "Adam, I- I can't- no, no I'm okay -yes mom and everybody is fine, I - Adam, stop interrupting me! Okay, I can't say it over the phone, I can't, I- Adam, I need you to go to Monmouth. I'll tell you there. I just really need you to do this. I am so sorry." Blue sniffed and Adam tried to calm his beating heart. She said she was fine. She said everybody else was fine. Okay. Right. Adam took a deep breath and steadied his voice.

 "I'll be there in fifteen." He promised Blue, already grabbing his keys and bag. "Do you need me to stay on the line?" At Blue's reassurance that that wasn't necessary, Adam ended the call and walked to his car. He stopped, briefly, at the receptionists desk, letting them know he was leaving early due to a family emergency, and walked as quickly as he could to his car. His knuckles were white the entire drive to Monmouth.

 

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is there anything better than breaking windows with a good rock and a slingshot made for hunting? No.
> 
> My headcanon is that Blue nearly gets herself and Adam in an accident every time she's behind the wheel, and Adam over reacts every time. 
> 
> This chapter felt rushed to me, but I was unsure how to write it without basically just copying everything from TRB. Sorry.  
> In truth, I'm not sure if I am happy with this chapter, but I kept re-working it and I eventually went back to this version. I am really sorry if it sucks.  
> That being said, warning for next chapter: Noah, and angst.
> 
> I live for comments y'all 🙌
> 
> Thanks for reading!!!


	6. Night's Plutonian Shore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd as always my pals, and also unedited because I suck. Yay!  
> Chapter Warnings: Language, Violence (non-graphic?), Minor Character Death, Smoking, Angst (?), Morally Questionable Actions, Referenced Canonical Child Abuse, Murder  
> PSA: Don't smoke, it kills. ily.
> 
> Some dialogue taken directly from the Raven Boys, once again, Maggie gets all credit for that.

  Adam was pacing next to his car in the block-wide parking lot of Monmouth. He heard the roar of the Camaro Gansey drove before he saw it pull into the lot and park next to Ronan's sleek BMW. Blue emerged from the passenger seat looking a bit frazzled, but seemingly unhurt. He looked from her to Gansey, eyeing the boy warily before Adam was enveloped in Blue's arms. Gansey watched them for several long moments, his brow furrowed. Adam pulled back from Blue, her eyes were red, she had been crying. 

 "Blue, you're kinda starting to freak me out. Who died?" Adam said, laughing nervously. Blue exchanged a look with Gansey that Adam couldn't read. Fuck. "Shit. Did somebody die?"

 "We were in the woods, out over by the church," she said, haltingly. Adam understood suddenly, remembering what he had heard at Aglionby.

 "Oh, Blue. No." He said, interrupting her. "Were you two the one's that found that poor kid out in the woods?"

 "You've already heard?" Gansey asked, sounding mildly relieved and stepping closer. Blue was shaking her head.

 "I heard about some kids finding the body of an Aglionby student. I'm sorry y'all had to see something like that. It must have been terrible." Adam said. Blue grunted, and cleared her thought.

 "No, no, Adam. No." Blue's voice was shaking, and she started tugging him towards Monmouth. As they reached the landing, the door was ripped open by Ronan Lynch, who was, inexplicably, holding what appeared to be a small raven.

 "The fuck is going on?" Ronan growled. Blue ignored him, and continued tugging Adam through the entrance and into the factory. Adam followed her willingly, and was arrested, for a moment, at this space these boys had created. His heart yearned for something like this, had since he himself was their age. Perhaps longer.

 "Adam, I -maybe you should sit down?" Blue said. Adam looked around, there wasn't a couch but there was a bed, a desk chair, or the floor. He sat in the desk chair. It gave him a great view of the little cardboard city that took up a good portion of the rooms space.

 "Seriously, what the fuck is going on? Whats Parrish and the midget doing here?" Ronan said, leaning against the wall. Adam wondered the same thing.

 "Mr. Parrish, Blue and I were searching the woods around the church." He paused here to cast a furtive look at Ronan. Adam did the same and saw something like jealousy flash across his face. "We found the body of an Aglionby student, and we've just spent the afternoon at the police station."  
   
 "Adam, the body we found. The I.D said... it was Noah. Noah Czerny." Blue said. Adam heard static. He thought, perhaps, that Blue had laid her hand on his shoulder. San Diego. San Diego. San Diego. A door slammed. Adam had never been good with slammed doors. He jerked his head up, not realizing he had put it in his hands. Noah. Noah was looking at him. He was looking at Noah.

 "I told you, I told everyone." Noah said, wringing his hands. Adam stood from his chair abruptly, knocking it over. He was aware that the others were talking, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. His world had narrowed to the vision before him. Noah was so different. Where was his vibrancy? His pervasive warmth? This paler version of his friend seemed at once untethered to reality and the realest thing Adam had ever seen. He understood, emphatically, that he was looking at a ghost.

 "Who killed you, Noah?" Gansey asked, breaking through the mist that had drifted over everyone and everything else that existed outside of Noah for the last several moments. The impossible answer was screamed into Adam's mind over and over again. The raven-like thing in Ronan's arms began screaming in tandem with his thoughts.

 "I don't want to talk about it." Noah answered, he was no longer looking at Adam, and was instead looking from Gansey to Blue to Ronan.

 "Please." Adam said, softly. In less than the time it took for Adam to blink, Noah, who had been across the room, was standing directly in front of him. Noah leaned in closer, and Adam couldn't breath.

 "You already know who." Noah whispered into his right ear. And then he was gone.

 

 

 The night that Noah's spirit had appeared, Adam had driven home alone, leaving Blue to more thoroughly explain Adam's connection to Noah. In truth, she didn't know much. She knew, of course, who Noah Czerny was, had overheard Adam talk about him to her mom and the others on several occasions. There had been a bit of a kerfuffle with Ronan about this, he somehow couldn't believe that Blue had not made the connection between the two Noah's. She had to explain that her Noah, their Noah, was quiet, smudgy and often not noticeable, liked playing with her hair, and making deadpan jokes. They had all paused at that. He made deadpan jokes about being dead. Holy smokes. And Blue tried not to let her head spin with that revelation. Meanwhile, Adam had always spoken of Noah as being loud, crude, often obnoxious, but also, those things were so forgivable because he could always make someone smile.

 Blue had once overheard Adam talking to Calla about Noah, he was telling her about how Noah knew him better than anyone, that he was his comfort, that he could pull him from spiraling thoughts and his laser focus. To stop, if only briefly, and have fun. Adam's voice had been so soft, and it had made Blue's ears pink and she had hurried back to her room before she could overhear anymore. And Adam had told her a little as well, how they had been friends, how he had disappeared. This last part she kept to herself. It felt too private to share with these two boys. Too delicate.

She explained all this as well as she could to Gansey and Ronan, who both assured her that Noah had never mentioned Adam or anyone else before. The three of them had speculated about what Noah had said to Adam that had left him so pale and in a hurry to leave. Of course, Blue had said, it could have also just been the surprise of finding out your best friend was dead, and that his spirit was perhaps haunting Monmouth.

 Several days later, Gansey had called and informed Blue that Adam had arrived back at Monmouth around dawn the day after they found Noah Czerny's bones and had spent the rest of the morning and afternoon locked in what was Noah's room. Adam returned to Monmouth the next day, and discovered that in his brief absence, Ronan had been scratched, a potted plant had been broken, a book had been flung off its shelf. But there was absolute silence when Adam was present, as though Noah was avoiding him. Gansey told her this in very hushed tones, afraid Adam would overhear. After this call, Blue cycled to Monmouth, only to find Adam already at his car. He looked distracted. His eye's were red and he looked like hadn't slept in  days.

 "Blue, I'm glad you're here. Could you tell your Mom and the others that I'll be gone for a few days?" He asked her, fidgeting with his keys.

 "Gone where?" Blue asked, noticing the way Adam's voice leaked the accent he had beaten down with a vengeance.

 "Baltimore. Just for a day. Maybe two or three." Adam said, not looking her in the eyes. "There's, uh, some folks up there I need to talk to."

 "What kind of folks?" Blue pressed. Adam shifted on his feet, looked back at Monmouth, and then looked her in the eyes. He looked like he had come to a decision. She had seen this expression on Adam multiple times since she had known him. It was his 'I'm getting out' face, his 'I can can do this on my own.' face.

 "Good people. There's something I need to do, and I need them to be okay with it." Adam replied.

 "That's vague as all hell, Adam!" Blue exclaimed. Blue was frustrated Adam was doing what he always did. When things were painful for Adam, he shut himself off. He was doing it now. Blue wondered if Baltimore was just an excuse to not have to deal with everyone he knew trying to comfort him. And she was offended to think that perhaps Adam didn't want the comfort she knew her mom and the others would be able to provide. Who was in Baltimore that could give better comfort than her family?

 "Blue, I'm not trying to be cruel, but honestly? This doesn't involve you, okay?" Adam said. He ruffled her hair, got in his car, and drove off. Blue watched him as he pulled out of the lot until he vanished from sight, and stomped up to Monmouth.

 

 

 The moon was already high in the night sky as Adam stood leaning against his shitty car, parked on the shoulder of the highway leading into Henrietta. He had quit smoking years ago, after getting hooked during a particularly stressful semester when he was a Sophomore, yet here he was now, smoking. It was his last one, he had gone though a whole pack since he bought it that afternoon. Not the most he had ever smoked, but he vaguely realized that he would have to go through the motions of quitting again, which was always fucking difficult. He took the final drag of his cigarette, and flicked it off to the side of the road. The motion reminded Adam that his knuckles hurt. He had hit them against something at some point and kept forgetting they needed treating. 

 Baltimore had been awful, Rachel and Adele crying, and Noah's parents a gentle breeze away from crumbling under their grief. He knew that, publicly, they were handling the loss stoically. But Adam wasn't the public. Adam had grown close with the Czerny family since Noah had disappeared all those years ago, brought together by their shared sense of abandonment. Adam would talk on the phone with Mrs. Czerny, Naomi, whenever she hired another private detective to find Noah. He was at Rachel's and Adele's high school graduations, had listened to them both talk about Noah, whispering truths between them. He had gotten a heartfelt letter from Stephen upon his graduation from Harvard, below the congratulations and praise, a short post-script informing Adam that they had dismissed the last of the private investigators and were ending the search for his son Noah, hoping instead that he would find his way back to them on his own someday.

 All these years later, the five of them had spent the last few days sitting together, comforting each other, mourning together. Before he left Baltimore, he had shut Naomi and Stephen alone with him in the former's office and told them what he planned to do in the vaguest terms possible. Not about what Adam suspected was the failed sacrifice of Noah on the Line, but about what he planned to do now. Naomi's eyes had been steely when she understood what it was he was asking of them, and with her hands in Stephen's, she sent him away, the two of them willingly complicit in what Adam would do next. The fact of what Adam was about to do didn't set right with his stomach, he was faintly nauseous about it, but he hadn't felt right since the truth of what had happened on St. Marks Eve had been whispered in his hearing ear by the ghost of the person he had cared about most. His phone began ringing, and, heaving a sigh that tasted of menthol, Adam got back into his car. On the other end of the line, Persephone told him that Gansey had been attacked yesterday by Barrington Whelk. In a raspy, soft voice, she told him whatever he was doing, he needed to hurry. Someone would soon wake the Ley Line. Adam started his car and drove on, already knowing where Barrington would be heading. Towards the forest, to the Ley Line.

 

 

_The sun beat down on Adam, too hot for the first few days of Spring. His hands were shaking as he set on the green grass outside the athletic building, excused from having to run laps like the other boys after Adam received a pointed look from Coach Clark. Adam was frustrated that he hadn't concealed his limp as well as he should have. It was never good when a teacher noticed the condition of Adam's body too closely. A dark-haired boy that Adam knew was Barrington Whelk jogged up to Coach Clark, handing him a note. Rolling his eyes, Coach dismissed him with a wave of his hand in Adam's direction. Whelk scanned the field with squinted eyes before he landed on Adam, and with a neutral expression, walked towards him._

_"You get a sick note too?" Barrington asked as he flopped down next to Adam on the grass, seeming to care little for the fact that he was still in his easily stained khaki dress pants._

_"Something like that."  Adam replied, stealing a glance at the other boy. He was lying on the ground, his face to the sky and his eyes closed. He was really pretty. Adam was in the same Earth Sciences class as him and yet, these were the first words the two had exchanged. Barrington Whelk and Adam Parrish did not belong to the same social circles. Translation, Barrington Whelk was friends with nearly everyone, and Adam Parrish was friends with no one. The other students at Aglionby Academy were entitled assholes that were too big of dicks for Adam to ever see them as friend material. Besides, Adam didn't need friends. He needed Aglionby's prestige for his college applications. He could handle being lonely for a few more years. Could handle the weight on his chest as he sat on the stairs leading to the double wide, returning home from his shift at the factory when the world was covered in darkness, knowing that soon it would be dawn. Adam would only get a few hours sleep before he had to cycle to Aglionby, where he would, at best, be ignored, and at worst, be taunted for being the kid here on scholarship. It sucked, but it was necessary. Adam had dealt with worse problems._

_"You forge yours?" Barrington yawned, "I learned how to forge my moms signature back in the 5th grade, it's rather useful."  Adam looked back down at Barrington, the other boy was watching him intently._

_"No," Adam sighed, "I got hurt at work and I can't really run right now."_

_"You get hurt at work a lot?" Whelk said, and Adam wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement. This time Adam did get hurt at work, but more often than not, work was just a handy excuse to use to hide where his injuries had really come from. Adam shrugged his shoulders in answer. The two sat quietly for several minutes, and Adam returned to his Latin homework, struggling to translate a section of 'Germania' by Tacitus. Barrington sat up and leaned over to watch what Adam was doing. It was annoying, and Adam was about to tell him to stop when Barrington tapped the word Adam had been laboring over._

_"Aedificandi," Barrington said, "its the genitive gerund of aedificō, aedificāre, aedificāvī, aedificātum. A verb that means build but should probably be translated here as construction. Sive adversus casus ignis remedium sive inscientia aedificandi. Yeah, 'of construction' works better. Is this today's homework?"_

_"Yes." Adam gritted, checking his dictionary and being annoyed that Whelk was right._

_"Cool. I have Latin for 5th hour, guess I get an advance on the material."  Barrington said, still leaning over Adam's shoulder to read the rest of the text. His lips moved silently as he read, cackling when he got to the word 'fimo'. "Its shit," he gasped, "oh god, please translate fimo here as shit instead of dung!"_

_"Do it in your own translation." Adam scoffed, before smiling and saying, "Besides, its not merda or cacare. If it had been one of those two, I might have." The first few days of Latin classes, all the boys in Adam's hour had learned as many of the dead languages obscenities as they could. Adam had done the same. Barrington Whelk cackled once again._

_"You ride your bike to school, right?" Barrington asked, apropos of nothing, once he regained control of his breathing._

_"Yeah, why?" Adam said, suspicious._

_"And you can't run? But you're planning to cycle back home?" Barrington pressed, looking out at the track where class was drawing to a close._

_"No, I'm planning on riding my bike to work and then riding home." Adam sighed, following Barrington's gaze to the track. Nigel Halloway had tripped over his own feet and crashed into Jeremy Wilcox, landing with his face on the later's crotch, causing an uproar of foul jokes._

_"Fuck that." Barrington snorted. "I can give you a ride."_

_"In exchange for?" Adam asked, narrowing his eyes at Whelk._

_"In exchange for your help with something. You get the best grades in Earth Sciences, you're like a science guy, or whatever, right? Right. You know Noah Czerny?" Adam nodded, everyone knew Noah Czerny. Adam had seen him with Barrington dozens of times, had heard multiple teachers talk about how the two of them were thick as ticks. "We're kind of looking for this thing, the Ley Line. Ever heard of it? No? It's this Line, and whoever gets control of it is supposed to get a favor or power or something. I think you could help us find it."_

_It sounded ridiculous, like a waste of time. A fools errand, chasing the impossible. Adam wanted to do it. "Yeah, okay." Adam said, his voice quieter than his thoughts._

 

 What Adam expected to find when he came into the clearing was Barrington Whelk. What he had not been expecting was Barrington Whelk standing over a tied up Neeve Mullen in the middle of a pentagram. The latter, however, was what he got. 

 "Oh for fucks sake. What are you doing here?" Barrington demanded. There was a time in Adam's life when Adam had needed Barrington badly, more than he had known. This man holding a knife, who had killed Noah, had at one time been his best friend. Adam had always thought that love was a privilege, but Adam had loved Barrington, in a similar way to how he had loved Noah. This man that Adam had loved, had seen as his best friend, had also killed Noah, man Adam loved and was also his best friend. It was hard to reconcile, Adam had been struggling with these facts for days. 

 "Noah." Adam said, simply. "Why Noah?" That particular question was what haunted him the most.

 "You don't understand, Adam. I had lost everything, I was desperate!" Barrington burst out, gripping his knife tighter.

 "But Noah? You wanted to perform the ritual, get back what you had? I understand that, I do. But why not choose someone horrible? Someone that deserved it. He was your friend, Barrington! Your best friend! So, tell me why the fuck you killed Noah. Because it was convenient?" Adam demanded, his voice breaking on Noah's name.

 "Someone who deserved it?" Barrington scoffed, "What, like your shitty old man?"

 "No," Adam said, his voice stronger, " You don't get to do that. You don't get to fucking-"

 "Adam!" Blue shouted, interrupting him. She stood behind Gansey and Ronan, the three of them watching the tableau before them with wide eyes. He had only looked away from Neeve and Barrington for a moment, but when he looked back, Neeve had disappeared and Barrington had lunged for him with his knife. The age-old adage warning against bringing a knife to a gun fight flashed across his mind before Adam felt the pain of the knife grazing his right arm. Instinctively, he dropped his gun to clutch at his injured arm, Barrington taking the opportunity to dive for the dropped weapon. Adam threw himself into the pentagram. The world shifted, Adam could hear something whisper into his deaf ear, but he didn't understand the words. Everything else was silence and the static buzz of electricity. He knelt, understanding the ritual, and made the sacrifice.

 The ground began to tremble and convulse, Adam heard Ronan call him a crazy bastard. He watched as leaves and branches and debris swirled around the others, though Adam himself was untouched. After Barrington derided Adam, for not knowing what to do with the power his sacrifice had given him, for that power being wasted on Adam, Adam watched detached as Barrington lifted his arm, aimed Adam's gun, and shot him. Blue screamed. Adam had been shot, and yet, Adam had not been shot. Sometimes, Adam thought, it was best not to think about such things. There was a rumbling in the distance, and from the trees, voices. Adam was thankful that Ronan had suggested that they take cover, thankful that Blue pulled the two boys into the strange vision tree, thankful that the three of them wouldn't have to bare witness to what was about to happen. As the rumblings got louder, Adam watched Barrington from where he was kneeling, gun dropped to his side. Perhaps the trees understood what he needed to do, that Cabeswater couldn't be the only thing responsible for what was about to happen. The gun that had just been beside Barrington was now in Adam's hands. 

 "Lex talionis," Adam said.  _The law of talion, an eye for an eye._  He pulled the trigger. This was justice.

 

 

 On a beautiful day in June, Adam stood with the Czerny family beside the grave of Noah. Naomi was being strong, but Rachel and Adele were huddled with their father, crying. They were surrounded by a few dozen Czerny relatives that Adam half recognized from photographs from Facebook, along with a number of their old fellow Aglionby students who, just like most of the Czernys, would probably turn the reception into a pseudo reunion. Adam watched as Blue approached Naomi, and as the two talked, he looked beyond them, to where Ronan and Gansey were standing. To where Noah was. Maybe. He could feel something like Noah near them, but of courese, they were in a cemetary. He was surrounded by the dead. God, he hoped what they were going to do tonight worked.

 A week before Noah's funeral, Adam gathered Gansey, Ronan and Blue together at Monmouth. The mood of the room was tense, Gansey still looked at him differently, and Adam was aware that, for these kids, he had killed, murdered, Barrington Whelk. He wished he could say that even if he hadn't pulled the trigger, that Cabeswater would have trampled Barrington to death in the ensuing stampede. It was true, but it was also true that Adam had only gone into the woods that night in order to avenge Noah. Adam looked at Blue, the most familiar face in the room.

 "You told me that Noah warned you about what I was doing, yeah? And that he had used quite a bit of power to do that?" Adam asked, waiting for Blue to nod her head in confirmation before continuing, "I think you are also all aware that Noah's spirit hasn't been able to be stable since even before that because his bones were removed from the Line, correct?"

 "That's what we had concluded, yes." Gansey said. "That since he died on the Line, and his bones remained there, they allowed his spirit to take on a corporeal form." Adam took a deep breath, and exhaled it shakily. 

 "How do you feel," he said, "about exhuming a body?" The question had been met, not with the horror he had mildly been dreading, but with subdued surprise.

 "Just for shits and giggles?" Ronan asked, Chainsaw the Raven perched on his shoulder. 

 "You mean Noah's bones, don't you?" Gansey said, swatting at Ronan. Blue smiled, an unnerving thing to see given the subject matter.

 "Yes. If we exhume his bones, we can take them back to the Ley Line, and it should help him to materialize easier." Adam replied. 

 "Then let's get digging." Ronan said, his smile reminding Adam of a shark. 

 Now here they were, after the funeral, after Adam used a backhoe to dig up the freshly buried bones of Noah, standing in Blue's Church, arranging said bones. From behind him, he heard Noah's voice.

 "Can we go home? This place is so creepy." Noah said. Adam's heart beat in time to a hummingbird's wings. He turned, and there Noah was. They smiled, tentatively, at each other. Noah was real, and solid and Adam could have screamed he was so happy. Adam crashed into him, just holding him. Noah hesitantly hugged him back, patting his shoulder. When Adam pulled back to let the others greet Noah, his stomach sank. Noah recognized him, sure, but Noah was also looking at him like Adam was nearly a stranger. An aquaintance recognized from a distance, whose name you knew but couldn't think of immediately. Adam remembered what Persephone told him, years ago. It was difficult for a spirit to keep it's memories, death was often best forgotten. Noah had had seven years and a violent murder to forget him, Adam was sometimes nothing but his memories.

"I guess now would be a good time to tell you," Ronan said over his shoulder, as they were leaving the Church. "I took Chainsaw out of my dreams."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh... this is late, I know. The reason is that my own friend was murdered a few years ago, and writing this kept bringing that up and the pain associated with that made this hard to write. Like, really hard. I was also struggling to convey the grief Adam was feeling, and I don't think I was properly able to do that, because I was trying to separate my own feelings from his and it was just Awful™. Sorry.  
> So, yeah... if this isn't as Angsty™ as I suggested... thats why.
> 
> I also got busy because I was going to move, and then it kind of... fell through so now all my stuff is in storage, I'm paying rent on a mostly empty place, and will be gone half-way across the country for the next two months... so yeah. I've been busy I guess.
> 
> Excuses excuses. Sorry.
> 
> You can fight me on this, but Barry and Adam laughing about dirty Latin was a really fun scene to write, even tho Barry's probs super OOC... except he kinda befriended Adam in order to use him???


	7. Fantastic Terrors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings: Language, Smoking, References to Drug Use (?)
> 
> Unbeta'd (I wish it weren't tho... but thats the way the cookie crumbles!) so all mistakes are mine. I would appreciate it if you pointed out any errors to me!  
> If you see something that should be tagged, let me know, and I'll add it to the chapter warnings! (Sorry in advance).
> 
> As always... omg thank you to everyone that has kudo'd, commented, subscribed, bookmarked, or has read this mess. Y'all are awesome thank you vvv much! And sorry if this chapter is short (tho not the shortest chapter of this fic), hopefully the next update will be longer.

 Adam Parrish stood on a hill outside Henrietta, a part of a four-person circle that also included Richard Cambell Gansey III, Ronan Lynch, and Noah Czerny. It was the former that he kept casting furtive looks at, searching for something in Noah's expression that wasn't there. Something deeper than recognition. While he was watching Noah, he could feel Gansey watching him. Rather, Adam was ignoring the pointed way Gansey was looking from Adam to the cigarette in his hand, disappointed in Adam's vice. He was supposed to have quit after the pack he bought when he was mourning his friend, but he hadn't managed to yet. Ronan was eyeing his cigarette with a smirk, probably happy to see a teacher being felled by an addiction. Ronan was the whole reason they were up here on this summer day, the little bastard had claimed he had taken his raven, that was currently perched creepily upon his shoulder, from his dreams. That same night, Adam had spent half an hour researching dream manifestation on his laptop. All he got out of it was some overused motivational lines and a weird forum on Reddit about dream theory.

 He noticed Blue lugging a telescope up the hill to join them, and Adam remembered the pamphlet from Aglionby's counselor's office about the dangers of smoking that someone had slipped under his door last week. It was probably Calla. Statistics involving the dangers of second-hand smoke flashed through his mind. 7,330 people died each year from lung cancer caused by second-hand smoke. Just because his own lungs had already been fucked thanks to inhaled fumes at Boyd's Body & Paint, LLC during his teenage years, and the two years in college he'd spent as a chain smoker, didn't mean he wanted to mess up anyone else's lungs. As Gansey helped her carry the telescope up the hill, he tossed the half-finished cigarette to the ground and crushed it under his foot. At Blue's raised eyebrows, he bent down to pick it back up and put it in his pocket. Another hour-long lecture on the effects of pollution was something he could do without. 

 Now that they were finally all gathered together, the four of them shifted closer to Ronan. With a deep inhale, Ronan opened his hand to reveal a small plane resting on his palm. Adam felt it was an impossible thing, white and featureless yet obviously a little plane. When Ronan removed where the battery should be and it was empty, Adam pointed out the obvious; No battery, no flying.  After Ronan had mimicked him, he had Noah hand him the controller that, apparently, controlled the little plane. Adam watched Noah and was once again startled by how real he was. There was hardly anything ghostly about him at all. If Adam hadn't known him as well as he did while he was alive, Adam didn't think he would have been able to notice any differences between an alive Noah and a dead Noah. But since Adam had known him, the differences were sometimes jarring. Not in his psychical (metaphysical?) appearance, but in his subdued nature. Well, physically, he now had nearly preternaturally pale features. Still, the greatest changes came in the small actions, in his emotions and speaking patterns. They ranged somewhere between familiar and totally different. His heart ached at the differences.

 Adam watched as Ronan exchanged the plane for the controller Noah had, as Noah held the plane in his palm. The others began counting down. The impossible plane, impossibly, took flight. Adam watched it soar about for several long moments. He heard Gansey call Ronan an incredible creature, and silently agreed. Ronan was, indeed, creating. Capable of pulling things from his dreams, literal dream manifestation. There was currently an impossible thing circling the sky that was only made possible by an impossible being. He felt eyes on him, a common occurrence lately, he was aware that the others had started paying attention to his smallest of actions since his deal with Cabeswater. Since he had killed Barrington. He didn't blame them, but he wished he could explain that murder and casual magically ritual sacrifice were not his routine. Adam and turned to see Blue watching him. 

 _What?_ He asked with his eyes. She shrugged her shoulders in answer and looked away. He was distracted by the thrum of the Corpse Road under his feet and surrounding him. When he was able to bring his focus back away from the Road, the others had already started packing up their instruments and tools; maps and EMF readers,telescope and other things that were familiar to him from his own teenage years traipsing about the woods with Barrington and Noah. His hand twitched towards his back pocket, where he had stuffed his pack of cigarettes. Blue, struggling to hold the telescope, was looking back at him, curiously. 

  _Aren't you coming?_ Her raised eyebrows said. Adam looked above her, to the horizon. At the backs of Noah, and Gansey and Ronan, the three of them already immersed in a discussion, already walking towards their next stage in their search for Glendower. At the Raven swooping overhead. He looked back at Blue, who had continued watching him with the same questioning expression. He shook his head, turned, and walked back to his car. He had work to do.

 

 

 The scent of sandalwood filled Adam's rental house. It was a grounding scent, helpful when deep concentration was required. It had taken Adam months to get over not liking the smell, and even now, he only grudgingly accepted it for his possibly Pavlovian response: If you smell sandalwood, it's time to concentrate. He had used it often enough at Harvard that more than a dozen people had asked him to sell them weed, and even more asked how he was able to maintain his GPA while being high so often. He tried to explain that sandalwood was great for improving concentration, had offered half his would-be buyers a sample. He wasn't ever able to convince everyone he wasn't a prodigious stoner, but he had managed to become an illicit dealer of sandalwood, mugwort, yerba santa, juniper, and whatever other herbs he could get sent to him from Jimi. The two of them had made a rather nice profit from selling rich kids dried herbs over the years. The number of people that blamed bad spirits instead of bad study habits for their poor grades had surprised them both.

 With a deep inhale of sandalwood, he once again focused on the task at hand; pouring water into a wooden bowl, lighting candles. Though it was still daylight, the living room was dark, courtesy of his blackout curtains and the already dark nature of the room. He sat in the darkness, and his right hand loosely held a glass tumbler. In the event his mind wandered too far, his grip would slacken and the cheap glass would fall on the wooden floor and the noise would, hopefully, pull him back. It wasn't his usual tether, but it would do. He peered into his bowl, watching intently the way the flames flickered and danced across the reflective surface.

 His mind wandered, beyond his mortal coil, stretching out into the distance. Into the space between  _Here_ and  _There,_ between  _Then_ and  _Now_ and  _Will Be._  He saw flashes at first, images incomprehensible to him, but that were nevertheless understandable. They were both  _Understandable_ and  _Incomprehensible_. As the images flashed, as their meanings became more scattered, in a detached way, he felt himself go deeper than he liked, and he attempted to imply intent to gain direction. Gansey. Blue. Noah. Ronan. Glendower. The names were a whispered mantra. The wild avalanche of images slowed, lasting longer, becoming clearer. A Raven - death. A cup - bloodlines. A butterfly - transition, transformation. A mask - something hidden. A flock of ravens, darting at him, swirling in ever tighter circles around him until he was enveloped in their dark wings, their cries a chorus of a thousand pained warnings that rang in both his ears. As the combined pandemonium of their thrashing wings and cries reached its zenith, the ravens broke away from him and flew like one terrible, dark, beast into the west.

 He came back to himself with a jolt, the cup still gripped in his right hand. The candles had been blown out, and Persephone sat before him, her eyes wide and her mouth pinched.

 "Maura wouldn't like this." Persephone said, gesturing to the bowl and mirrors. 

 "No, I don't think she would. But she was willing to let Neeve scry." Adam replied.

 "I suppose that is true." Persephone sighed. "She was better though."

 "At scrying?" Adam said, thinking about Neeve Mullen and how she had disappeared, accidentally spirited away by the inhabitants of Fox Way. He was loathe to admit it, but he had always thought of scrying as his specialty, followed by tarot.

 "Oh, probably. Or better at looking into something that could cause harm. Maura wouldn't let you get hurt." Persephone frowned, looking back into the scrying bowl and quickly looking away. "What did you see?"

 "Something is starting, or will start. For awhile, I thought it was done, now that the Corpse Road is awoken. I'm not so sure now. I think if that was the start, there's still a long way to go. Ravens flying to the west... something is coming." Adam shrugged. Thinking about the images he had seen that were connected to Blue and the others, they made sense. Gansey would be dead within a year. Blue's mother had brought in Neeve to look for her father. Noah was transformed from the boy Adam knew and loved into an echo of his former self. Adam didn't know you could love an echo. And Ronan, of course he was hiding something, he could pull things from his dreams, he most have a whole shitload of secrets.

 Persephone heaved a great sigh, reached within the folds of her dress and brought out her Tarot deck, her eyes never leaving his. He placed the cup next to his scrying bowl, and copied her motion, grabbing his tarot deck from his back pocket. Persephone had given him the deck years ago, before he left for Harvard. Together, they shuffled their respective decks. She placed a card on the floor, the Wheel.

 "Inevitability?" Adam mused. Persephone made a thoughtful noise and tapped the card. She brought the same finger in-front of herself and made a circle in the air.

 "The wheel is forever rotating, just as Anubis rises, he must also once again fall. It could mean a change." Persephone said, shuffling her remaining cards again. She gave a pointed look at Adam's cards, but he wasn't ready to place one yet. None of them felt quite warm enough.

 "Could or does?" Adam asked. He paused his shuffling and frowned down at his deck. Finally, a card felt right. He placed it next to the Wheel of Fortune card. The Lovers, reversed.

 "Oh, does, I suppose." Persephone said, she looked at Adam's card for a long moment. "That'll need fixing"

 "The balance?" Adam wondered. It felt true, that there was _something_ wrong. That some great thing had shifted and was out of balance.

 "Yes." Persephone answered. "What else could it be?" 

  _Lots of things,_ Adam didn't say. While every card in the deck had many different readings, it was mostly about how they felt. And the upside-down Lovers card currently felt like it was telling them, warning them, about a loss of balance. 

 Persephone placed another card down, this time the Five of Cups. Grief. Loss. She sighed, and placed a hand on Adam's shoulder. Adam ran a gentle finger over the face of the card. 

 "I am sorry." Persephone said softly. She had said it over the last few weeks in dozens of ways. In pies and whispers. In gentle touches and a warm blanket. 

 "I am too." Adam replied, placing his hand over Persephone's. He wasn't sorry, particularly, about what he had done. That had been necessary, though he wished it hadn't. The Corpse Road was rarely clear about anything, but balance was important. But he was sorry about what he had lost. Barrington had only died recently, and Noah had been dead for years, he hadn't really lost one when he gained the other. In truth, he had lost them both seven years ago. Noah to the misty veil between life and death that had rendered him something  _Other_. Barrington he had lost to the forest when he chose to attempt sacrificing Noah. 

 "Draw another card, Adam." Persephone said, removing her hand and shuffling her cards again. He missed her comforting touch. Together, they drew a single card and placed them next to each other. They both looked studied the Two of Swords cards they had each laid down. 

 "Well, it seems you'll have some difficult decisions to make soon." Persephone sighed. 

 "When do I not?" Adam groaned.

 

 

 

 Blue sat atop Adam's kitchen counter, lightly kicking her heels against the cabinet. Gansey had dropped her off after making her promise to tell Adam about their exploring. She wished once again that Adam, who was sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by books and stacks of papers and pens in a rainbow of colors, had just come with them. 

 "So you got to the water and stopped?" Adam was asking, not looking at her but leafing through a notebook. He frowned at what he found on one page and looked at the book to his left, and back again several times before highlighting a line in the notebook and scribbling something in the margins.

 "Yep, and Gansey was real upset about it. He called that old professor he's friends with and they want to go and explore the bottom of he lake. Or scan it or something." She said, and frowned. "Do you know a Kavinsky? He was trying to race Gansey."

 "Joseph Kavinsky?" Adam said, finally looking up from his papers. "Yeah, he's in my physics class. He's not exactly a good student, but he makes alright grades. Good enough to stay in Aglionby. He has issues with authority, but some people grown out of that."

 "Urg, you can just say he's a bastard, everyone knows it." Blue said, making a face that she hoped clearly conveyed her disgust at the existence of Kavinsky.

 "Gansey didn't race him, did he? He wouldn't have won." Adam said, and looked to the ceiling for a moment. "Also, it's illegal and if he ever does something like that with you in the car, I'll pour bleach into his gas tank." 

 Blue laughed for several moments, because it seemed like a thing to laugh at; Gansey street racing. Adam smiled at her, before going dragging a heavy looking book across the table.

 "What are you doing with all those papers?" Blue asked, a part of her wanting Adam's attention once again.

 "Oh, I'm studying for the LSAT, I'll be taking it in a few weeks." Adam answered. Blue hopped off the counter.

 "You're taking the LSAT? How?" Blue said. Adam had just killed his friend and sacrificed himself to a mysterious, magical forest, and he was studying to get into law school? It was a frighteningly Adam Parrish thing to do, but still.

 "How?" Adam said, smiling. "Well, first, you decide you want to take the LSAT. Then, you find a testing center and you schedule the test. And then you study your ass off. If you get a good score, you're ready to apply. If you don't, you re-take the test in October."

 "Jerk." Blue said. "Where are you applying, Harvard?"

 "Yeah, along with Yale. And the other Northeast schools. A few in California. The University of Virginia, and a couple of safety schools." Adam said, tapping his pen on his notebook.

 "California is pretty far away." Blue commented, thinking about how UVA was in Richmond, a mere two hours drive. 

 "Yes, I know. I almost chose going to Stanford over Harvard for my undergrad, did I ever tell you that?" Adam said, leaning back in his chair. Blue shook her head. "It was one of the first acceptance letters I got, and at the time, I wanted to get as far away from Henrietta as I could get. And Stanford is a really great school, but in the end, I got accepted into Harvard and that was it."

 "You're lucky you did." Blue scoffed "There's no way you would have flown back for your breaks, and it's too long of a drive. Who would you watch political and law documentaries with all summer if I wasn't there to be bored to death?"

 "Brat!" Adam laughed, "I would have missed you too if I had gone to Stanford."

 "Ewww, Adam, don't get all sentimental, that's gross." Blue said, and made a gagging motion.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sandalwood is really good at masking the smell of marijuana... or so I've heard.
> 
> My Spring and Summer are going to be really super busy... I'll be traveling a lot, working when I can, and I have University... so... Updates are probably about to get weirdly infrequent... maybe?
> 
> Okay... full disclosure. Up until this year, there was no LSAT in July... so, considering this is set in 2014... God this isn't event the first time I've manipulated time in this story, I'm so sorry. But I think Adam Parrish would have taken the LSAT in June, but there's a whole lot going on that month, including Noah's funeral so.... And in 2014 he would have had to take the LSAT in October if he didn't in June sooo.  
> In solidarity (?) with Adam, I took the LSAT from 2007, or the one that I found online, anyway, and scored a 148. Which is... not good!

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, Hahaha omg why did I write this? 
> 
> Secondly, warning! I will probably respond to all comments! If I get any!
> 
> Lastly, I love you, thank you for reading!


End file.
